How to calculate the length of service of the employee for the amount of severance pay?
Verified 24 April 2026 - Public Service / Directorate of Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)
Unless he's fired for gross misconduct or gross negligence, a dismissed employee shall be entitled to severance pay if he has at 8 months of uninterrupted seniority in the same company. This seniority is calculated from the day the employer sends the termination letter. Certain periods of suspension of the employment contract are taken into account to calculate this seniority, others are not. We're taking a look at the regulations.
The periods taken into account can be leave for family reasons or related to training, a leave of absence for accident or occupational disease among others.
Leave for family reasons
Seniority is taken into account in totality for the calculation of severance pay in the following situations:
Training-related leave
Seniority is taken into account in totality for the calculation of severance pay in the following situations:
Work stoppage due to accident or occupational disease
Seniority is taken into account in totality for the calculation of severance pay in the following situations:
- ₪
- Occupational disease
- In the event ofunfit for work, the notice must be included in the seniority of the employee, even if he is not performed and the employment contract is terminated immediately.
Other situations
Seniority is taken into account in totality for the calculation of severance pay in the following situations:
- Annual Paid Leave
- International solidarity leave
- Leave of representation
- Leave of employees who are candidates or elected to a parliamentary or local mandate
- Part-time for company creation or takeover
- Job Transition Project
- Operational reserve
- Hiring after a apprenticeship contract
- Change of employer following an estate, sale, merger, transformation of the fund
- Internship end of study if it is more than 2 months and followed by hiring at the end of the internship
- Notice not given at the request of the employer
- In the case of one or more FIXED-TERM CONTRACT: titleContent (without interruption) followed immediately by DTA: titleContent, seniority starts at 1er FIXED-TERM CONTRACT
- In case of acceptance of the professional security contract (CSP) in the context of an economic dismissal. The length of service taken into account is that which the employee would have had if he had given his notice (even if the contract is terminated at the end of the 21-day period).
Some treaty provisions may be more favorable.
A simulator allows you to search for the collective agreement with the name of the company or its Siret number:
Seniority is taken into account partially for the calculation of severance pay in the following situations:
- In case of discontinuous contracts, seniority is taken into account from the date of entry of the last contract.
- In case of a hiring in the user company after a temporary employment contract, the seniority taken into account shall be maximum 3 months.
- During a full-time parental education leave, seniority shall be taken into account for half.
Some treaty provisions may be more favorable.
A simulator allows you to search for the collective agreement with the name of the company or its Siret number:
Seniority is not taken into account for the calculation of severance pay in the following situations:
- Journey accident
- Non-occupational disease
- Partial activity (partial unemployment)
- Leave for company creation or resumption
- Leave Without Pay
- Sabbatical
- Strike
- Layoff
- Notice not given at the request of the employee.
Some treaty provisions may be more favorable.
A simulator allows you to search for the collective agreement with the name of the company or its Siret number:
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Administrative information by phone - Allô Service Public
For more information on this subject, you can contact Allô Service Public.
Attention: the service does not have access to users' personal files and therefore cannot provide information on their progress.
He does not respond questions on unemployment compensation and approaches to the France Labor (formerly Pôle emploi), the public servants or contract workers of the fcivil service, the amount or payment of contributions social, wage or employer.
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The informants who answer you belong to the ministry in charge of labor.
Training (L1221-24)
Transfer of employment contract (L1224-3)
Maternity Leave (L1225-24)
Paternity and childcare leave (L1225-35-2)
Adoption Leave (L1225-42)
Parental Education Leave (L1225-54)
Parental Attendance Leave (L1225-65)
Resignation to raise a child (L1225-67)
Unfit of non-occupational origin (1224-4)
and occupational disease (L1226-7)
Professional Security Contract (L1233-67)
Severance pay (1234-9)
Term of fixed-term contract and continuation after maturity (L1243-11)
Temporary employment contract
Economic, Social, Environmental and Union Training Leave (L2145-10)
Family solidarity leave (L3142-12)
Caregiver Leave (L3142-21)
Sabbatical (L3142-28)
Mutual Training Leave (L3142-37)
Training leave for youth leaders and facilitators (L3142-55)
Hospitality Leave (L3142-62)
International solidarity leave (L3142-68)
Leave of employees who are candidates or elected to a parliamentary or local mandate (L3142-82)
Operational Reserve (L3142-94-1)
Partial activity (partial unemployment L5122-1)
Apprenticeship contract (L6222-16)
Professional transition CPF (L6323-17-4)