FRANCE—Disparaging one’s manager in a private e-mail does not justify termination

An employee sent an e-mail to a colleague including a fictitious CV with denigrating comments about his manager. The “friendly” colleague transmitted the litigious CV to the concerned manager, who made a case out of it, leading to the termination of the author of the fictitious CV for serious misconduct.

The whole case revolves around the characterization of the e-mail as private or not, whereas the sender and the recipient were employees of the same company, the subject matter was a manager and the content went beyond what would be tolerated by freedom of speech.

Contrary to the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court characterized the litigious e-mail as private. It noted that the e-mail had not been sent from the work place or during working hours. Also, it had been sent from the private e-mail box of the fired employee to the private e-mail address of the colleague. As a result, sending this e-mail did not constitute a breach to the fairness obligation of the employee and could not justify a dismissal for serious misconduct.