Ending a Domestic Worker Contract in France: Legal Steps

Your cleaner has been coming twice a week for three years. You are relocating to Amsterdam in September, and the job simply disappears. You send a friendly WhatsApp message explaining the situation, pay the month in full, and consider the matter closed.

It is not. In France, that message has just exposed you to a claim for dismissal without real and serious cause, plus unpaid notice, plus unpaid severance — for a household employee working eight hours a week. Ending a domestic employment relationship is governed by the IDCC 3239 collective agreement (particuliers employeurs et emploi à domicile), and its procedure is short but strictly timed.

This guide gives you the exact sequence, the exact notice periods, a costed severance example, and the documents you must hand over on the last day.

The Five Ways a Domestic Employment Can End

French employment law recognises several distinct routes, and each triggers different obligations:

The type of contract (CDI or CDD) and the reason determine which rules apply. None of these routes allows you to simply stop the work — not by phone call, not by text message, not by email.

Employee Resignation: What You Need to Do

If your domestic worker resigns, the resignation must be clear and unambiguous. A written letter is strongly preferable: it removes any dispute about whether and when the resignation happened, and it fixes the start of the notice period.

Notice periods for resignation run by seniority with the same employer:

• less than 6 months: 1 week;
• 6 months to under 2 years: 2 weeks;
• 2 years or more: 1 month.

During notice the employee keeps working and being paid as normal. Notice can be shortened or waived by written mutual agreement, but you cannot unilaterally suppress it without paying the equivalent salary.

An employee who finds a new job during their notice may, on producing evidence, leave before its term once part of the notice has been served. In that case you only pay the hours actually worked.

Dismissal by the Employer: When Is It Lawful?

You can dismiss a domestic worker, but only for a real and serious cause (cause réelle et sérieuse) based on verifiable facts. Common valid grounds:

• Professional inadequacy: the work is not performed to a reasonable standard and has not improved after the problem was clearly raised.
• Repeated lateness or unjustified absence that materially disrupts the household.
• Misconduct: theft, breach of trust, breach of confidentiality, serious negligence.
• Medical incapacity (inaptitude), confirmed by the occupational health doctor following the prescribed process.
• A genuine and lasting change in your personal situation: moving abroad, a durable change in family structure, the disappearance of the need itself.

That last ground is the one that applies to most expat departures, and it is perfectly valid — provided the need genuinely disappears and you follow the procedure. "I would prefer someone else" is not a cause; replacing the same job with a different person a fortnight later will be read by a judge as a pretext.

The Dismissal Procedure: The Timeline You Cannot Compress

This is where most expat employers lose. The cause can be entirely valid and the dismissal still be irregular because a deadline was missed.

Step 1 — Convocation to the preliminary interview. Send a lettre de convocation à entretien préalable by registered post with acknowledgement of receipt (lettre recommandée avec accusé de réception), or hand it over against a signed receipt. It states the purpose, and the date, time and place of the interview. It must not announce the decision.

Step 2 — Wait before the interview. Under IDCC 3239, the interview may be held from the 4th working day (jour ouvrable), counted from the day after hand delivery or the day after the first presentation of the registered letter.

Step 3 — The preliminary interview. You set out the grounds you are considering and let the employee respond. Two points specific to private households: neither party can be assisted at this interview. The common-law right to be accompanied by a conseiller du salarié does not apply to employment at a private home, and you as the employer cannot bring a third party either. Do not copy a standard corporate template that offers the employee an adviser — our guide on the preliminary interview for a private employer covers the wording in detail. If the employee does not attend, the procedure continues.

Step 4 — Notify the dismissal in the conventional window. The dismissal letter may be sent from the 4th working day and at the latest on the 30th working day (midnight), counted from the day after the interview — or from the day after the date planned for it if it did not take place. This IDCC 3239 window is more precise than the general two-working-day rule of the Labour Code, and it is the one to apply here. Send it by registered post with acknowledgement of receipt.

Step 5 — The letter must state precise grounds. The written reasons define the dispute. French law allows the reasons already stated in the letter to be clarified after notification, at the employee's request or on the employer's initiative, within the regulatory 15-day period; it does not make a vague or unsupported reason safe. Write the material facts, dates and impact in the original letter rather than relying on a later clarification.

Step 6 — Notice, final pay, documents. The employment continues through the notice period, then you issue the final payslip, the settlement and the end-of-contract documents.

How the working days are counted. Jours ouvrables run Monday to Saturday. The day of delivery or first presentation, the day of the interview, Sundays and public holidays are not counted. If a deadline would expire on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday, it rolls over to the next working day.

Worked Timeline (Illustrative Dates)

A dismissal for disappearance of the need, with the convocation letter first presented on Monday 7 September 2026:

Anticipate: the real calendar depends on the actual presentation dates of each registered letter, and on Sundays and public holidays.

Notice Periods After Dismissal: The Scale Everyone Gets Wrong

Notice periods for dismissal are not the same as for resignation. Outside gross or wilful misconduct:

• less than 6 months' seniority: 1 week;
• 6 months to under 2 years: 1 month;
• 2 years or more: 2 months.

Compare the two scales at three years of seniority: a dismissal requires 2 months of notice, a resignation only 1 month. Applying the resignation scale to a dismissal is one of the most frequent and most expensive errors in this field.

The notice starts on the first presentation of the registered dismissal letter, not on the date you posted it — which is why keeping the proof of presentation matters.

Gross misconduct (faute grave) and wilful misconduct committed with intent to harm (faute lourde) remove the notice and the severance, but they must be established by precise, verifiable facts, and the procedure still applies in full. Both qualifications can be overturned before the tribunal; our French-language guide on faute grave and faute lourde sets out what actually qualifies.

If you prefer the employee to stop working immediately, you can waive the notice in writing — but you then owe the full salary for that period (indemnité compensatrice de préavis).

Severance Pay: Who Is Entitled and How Much?

An employee on a CDI dismissed for anything other than gross or wilful misconduct is entitled to statutory severance (indemnité légale de licenciement) from 8 months of continuous seniority with the same employer, assessed at the date the dismissal letter is sent.

The legal minimum is:

• 1/4 of a reference month's salary per year of seniority for the first 10 years;
• 1/3 of a reference month's salary per year beyond 10 years.

The reference salary is the more favourable of: the average gross monthly salary over the last 12 months, or the average over the last 3 months. Seniority is counted up to the end of the notice period, even when you have waived it.

Costed Example (Indicative)

The figures below illustrate the method; your own amounts will differ.

Situation. A cleaner works 8 hours a week at €13.00 gross per hour — above the level I minimum of the IDCC 3239 grid, €12.61 gross per hour since 1 June 2026, itself above the SMIC of €12.31 gross per hour applicable at the same date. She has 3 years and 2 months' seniority. You are relocating abroad, the job disappears, and you waive the notice. For this illustrative holiday line, assume €5,408.04 of gross reference pay over the relevant period, no leave already taken and 10 working days still due out of a 30-day annual entitlement.

Monthly reference salary: 8 h × 52 ÷ 12 = 34.67 hours per month, i.e. 34.67 × €13.00 = €450.67 gross per month.

Indicative total, excluding the final month's salary: €1,457.17 gross.

Three points that catch employers out:

• Severance is not salary. It is not subject to social contributions and is not declared as pay. The notice indemnity and the holiday indemnity, by contrast, are salary and must be declared.
• If your hourly rate already includes the 10 % holiday supplement — common for occasional work — the holiday line must not be paid a second time.
• These sums are paid directly to the employee by transfer or cheque, never in pre-financed Cesu vouchers.

A part-time employee working a handful of hours a week still accrues seniority year after year. Past the 8-month mark, severance is a legal entitlement, not a negotiating position.

Mutual Termination (Rupture Conventionnelle): The Route Most Expats Should Consider

When both sides are willing, the rupture conventionnelle is usually the cleanest exit for a relocating family. It avoids an adversarial procedure and — unlike a resignation — it opens unemployment rights for the employee.

The sequence:

1. At least one meeting to agree the terms freely. As at the preliminary interview, neither party may be assisted in a private household.
2. A written agreement setting the end date and the compensation, which cannot be lower than the statutory severance calculation.
3. A 15-calendar-day withdrawal period from the day after signature, during which either side may pull out by registered letter. No approval request may be filed before it expires.
4. Homologation through TéléRC (telerc.travail.gouv.fr), the online service — not a paper filing. The DDETS/DDETSPP then has 15 working days from the day after receipt to review the file; silence means the homologation is granted. The termination only takes effect after that.

Budget roughly a month between the agreement and the actual end date. Our French-language guide on the documents to prepare before filing on TéléRC sets out the paperwork in order.

Fixed-Term Contracts (CDD): Different Rules Apply

A CDD ends on its agreed term: no dismissal procedure, no notice, no severance. Two scenarios change that:

• Early termination by the employer without valid cause (outside gross misconduct, force majeure, medical incapacity or mutual agreement) entitles the employee to damages at least equal to the remaining salary until the contract's term. Ending a six-month CDD after two months means paying four months for no work.
• Misuse of the CDD: using it for a permanent, ongoing need, or renewing it repeatedly for the same role, exposes you to reclassification as a CDI with retroactive consequences.

For any ongoing domestic arrangement, the CDI is the appropriate form — part-time hours and an indefinite term are independent notions.

End-of-Contract Documents You Must Provide

Whatever the route and however amicable the parting, three documents are due on the last day:

Certificat de travail — confirms the dates of employment and the role held. Drawn up by you.

Reçu pour solde de tout compte — an itemised statement of every final payment: last salary, notice indemnity if due, severance, accrued unused holiday. The employee signs it on receipt. Signature does not close the door: the receipt can be challenged within 6 months, and only for the items it lists.

Attestation France Travail (formerly Pôle emploi) — this is what allows the employee to claim unemployment benefit. If you declare through Cesu, it is generated directly from the Urssaf/Cesu portal; the other two documents are yours to draft. Failing to provide it causes real financial harm to the employee and is an independent fault.

Add the final payslip to the pile, and keep proof of delivery of all of them.

Final Checklist Before the Last Day

• [ ] Grounds identified, factual, and capable of being evidenced
• [ ] Convocation sent by registered post with acknowledgement, or handed over against receipt
• [ ] Interview held no earlier than the 4th working day after presentation
• [ ] No third party present on either side
• [ ] Dismissal letter sent between the 4th and 30th working day after the interview
• [ ] Letter states precise, verifiable grounds
• [ ] Correct dismissal notice scale applied (1 week / 1 month / 2 months), not the resignation scale
• [ ] Severance calculated if 8 months' seniority or more, using the more favourable reference salary
• [ ] Accrued unused holiday paid, and not double-counted if the rate already includes 10 %
• [ ] Final declaration filed with Cesu for the amounts that count as salary
• [ ] Certificat de travail, solde de tout compte, attestation France Travail and final payslip handed over

Common Mistakes Expat Employers Make

Stopping the work without any written process. "Please don't come back next week" is not a termination. It leaves you with no procedural defence at all.

Using WhatsApp or email for the formal steps. The convocation and the dismissal letter must be sent by registered post with acknowledgement of receipt or delivered against a signed receipt.

Offering the employee an adviser at the interview. Copied from corporate templates, this mention does not apply to a private household — and inviting a third party into your home creates confusion rather than protection.

Applying the resignation notice scale to a dismissal. At two years or more, a dismissal requires two months, not one.

Forgetting that seniority runs to the end of the notice period when calculating severance, including when the notice has been waived.

Treating severance as salary in the Cesu declaration — or, conversely, forgetting to declare the notice and holiday indemnities, which are salary.

Skipping the end-of-contract documents because the separation was friendly.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I dismiss because I am moving abroad? Yes. A durable change in your personal situation that removes the need is a real and serious cause. The procedure, the notice and the severance remain exactly the same.

The employee refuses to sign the solde de tout compte. Is that a problem? No. Note the refusal, keep proof that the amounts were paid and the documents offered. An unsigned receipt simply loses its discharging effect.

What if the dismissal is challenged before the conseil de prud'hommes? The judge assesses the evidence submitted by both parties, and any remaining doubt benefits the employee. Damages are set by the tribunal. Article L1235-3 contains a compensation scale, including specific minimums for employers with fewer than 11 employees; because the Labour Code provisions expressly applicable to employees working in a private home are listed by article L7221-2, obtain case-specific advice before assuming how that scale will apply to domestic employment.

Do I owe anything if my employee resigns? The final salary, accrued unused holiday, and the three end-of-contract documents. No severance, and no unemployment rights in principle.

Does a trial period change anything? Yes: during the période d'essai, the contract can be ended without the dismissal procedure, subject to a short notice that increases with the time already worked.

Ending a Domestic Worker Contract in France: In Summary

Ending a domestic employment in France is a short procedure with hard deadlines: convocation, interview from the 4th working day, dismissal letter between the 4th and 30th working day, then notice of 1 week to 2 months depending on seniority, severance from 8 months, and three documents on the last day. Get the sequence and the notice scale right and the exposure is limited; improvise by message and it is not.

The single most effective protection is a written contract from day one, stating the classification, the hourly rate and the working hours — because every calculation above is derived from it. You can generate a compliant employment contract in a few minutes, or read our overview of employing a domestic worker in France.

Official Sources

Checked on 14 August 2026. Amounts and thresholds change with pay revaluations and collective bargaining amendments; verify the current figures before applying them.

• Légifrance — IDCC 3239 collective agreement of 15 March 2021 (termination procedure and conventional deadlines)
• Légifrance — salary amendment no. 10 to IDCC 3239 (minimum hourly rates in force since 1 June 2026)
• Code du travail numérique — notice period on dismissal, IDCC 3239
• Légifrance — article R1232-13 of the Labour Code (15-day period for clarifying the grounds stated in the dismissal letter)
• Légifrance — articles L1235-1 and L7221-2 of the Labour Code (assessment of evidence and doubt benefiting the employee) and provisions expressly applicable to employees working in a private home
• Cesu Urssaf — what to do in case of dismissal
• Service-Public — ending the contract of a home-based employee
• TéléRC — online homologation of a rupture conventionnelle