Conseil de Prud'hommes: How France's Labour Court Works and the Deadlines

Almost every individual employment dispute in France ends up in the same place: the conseil de prud'hommes, the juridiction paritaire staffed by conseillers prud'hommes drawn in equal number from the employeur and salarié sides, appointed every four years by joint order of the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Labour on the proposal of the trade unions and employer organisations under article L1441-1 of the Code du travail, rather than by career magistrates. It is the only court competent to hear a dispute between a private sector employer and an individual employee, whether the disagreement arose while the contract was running or at the moment it ended.

The procedure is deliberately accessible. No lawyer is required, the claim is started with a written request rather than a formal writ, and a mandatory conciliation stage comes before any judgment. What is far less forgiving is the timetable, because the limitation periods are short and vary sharply by the type of claim, and because the exact day the clock starts on a dismissal claim was only settled by the Cour de cassation in May 2025.

Information last verified on 21 July 2026. This page presents general legal information, not legal advice.

Jurisdiction scope: This page covers French national employment law (the Code du travail) as it applies to private sector contracts in mainland France. It does not cover public sector employment, which is heard by the administrative courts, or the law of any other country.

What the Conseil de Prud'hommes Can and Cannot Hear

Service-Public describes the conseil de prud'hommes as the only court competent to settle any individual dispute between an employer and an employee. That covers disputes arising during the working relationship as well as those arising on termination.

The range of subject matter is broad. It includes termination of the contract, disciplinary sanctions, payment of salary or bonuses, working time, rest days and leave, health and safety at the workstation, the handover of the France Travail attestation, the certificat de travail and the reçu pour solde de tout compte, situations of harcèlement moral or sexuel and of discrimination, the formation of the contract including a broken promise of employment, and the requalification of a working relationship into an employment contract.

The court is open to anyone holding a private law employment contract. That expressly includes apprentices and employees on a contrat de professionnalisation, assistants maternels et familiaux, people on subsidised contracts, staff of industrial and commercial public bodies such as the RATP or the social security funds, and employees of another European Union state temporarily posted to France.

Three areas fall outside its reach. The conseil is not competent for disputes about collective labour relations, for contracts of public law employment (the tribunal administratif hears those), or for accidents at work and occupational diseases.

The Deadline That Most Sources Get Wrong

Article L1471-1 of the Code du travail provides that any action concerning the termination of the employment contract is time barred twelve months from the notification of the termination. The wording looks simple and the application is where claims are lost.

French employers notify a dismissal by lettre recommandée avec accusé de réception. The question is whether the twelve months runs from the day the employer posted that letter or the day the employee received it, and a great many French sources still write as though the posting date governs.

On 21 May 2025, in a decision published in the bulletin (pourvoi 24-10.009), the chambre sociale of the Cour de cassation settled the point. Applying Article 668 of the Code de procédure civile, it recalled that the date of postal notification is, for the person effecting it, the date of dispatch, and for the person to whom it is made, the date the letter is received.

It followed, the Court held, that the limitation period for an action contesting the termination of the employment contract runs from the date the employee receives the recommended letter with acknowledgement of receipt notifying the termination. The court of appeal that had used the dispatch date was quashed.

The same decision confirmed the counting rule. Applying Articles 2228 and 2229 of the Code civil, the day during which the triggering event occurs does not count in the period, so the twelve months effectively begins the day after receipt. For an employee who was away when the letter arrived, the difference between the two dates can be the difference between a claim heard and a claim struck out.

The Other Limitation Periods

The twelve month rule is not the only clock, and applying it to the wrong kind of claim is a common error. The periods below are set out by Service-Public and by the Code du travail.

An action concerning the performance of the contract, as opposed to its termination, is time barred after two years from the day the claimant knew or should have known the facts allowing them to act.

An action for payment of salary, including unpaid overtime and unpaid bonuses, is time barred after three years under Article L3245-1, counted from the date the sum fell due. The claim may cover the sums due for the last three years from that day or, where the contract has ended, the three years preceding the termination.

Contesting a rupture conventionnelle that has been approved carries twelve months from the date of homologation. Contesting a figure in a reçu pour solde de tout compte that the employee has signed carries only six months; if it was not signed, the period is three years.

An action based on harcèlement moral, harcèlement sexuel or discrimination carries five years. For harcèlement the period runs from the last incriminated fact and covers the earlier facts that form part of the same course of conduct. For discrimination it runs from the revelation of the discriminatory fact. A claim for bodily injury suffered at work carries ten years from consolidation of the damage.

Filing the Claim

The claim is started by requête, which may be written on plain paper or set out on the standard cerfa form for the saisine of the conseil de prud'hommes. It is sent to the greffe by post, registered or not, or handed in directly.

The request must be dated and signed and must give the claimant's details, the details of the defendant, the object of the claim and a summary statement of the grounds. It must state all of the claimant's prétentions, meaning every sum claimed, and be accompanied by the supporting documents listed on an annexed bordereau de communication de pièces. One copy is filed for each defendant plus one for the greffe.

The competent conseil is the one for the place where the establishment the employee works in is located, the place where the contract was concluded, or the registered office of the employer. An employee working from home or outside any establishment applies to the conseil for their own home.

Introducing the claim requires a 50 euro electronic tax stamp, bought online by bank card, unless the claimant benefits from aide juridictionnelle. Non payment allows one month to regularise, after which the claim becomes inadmissible and has to be started again.

Conciliation Comes First

The ordinary procedure begins with the bureau de conciliation et d'orientation. Article L1454-1 charges it with conciliating the parties and expressly allows it to hear each party separately and in confidence.

If conciliation succeeds in full, the dispute ends there and a procès-verbal records the agreement, either immediately or later. If it fails, the unresolved elements are oriented towards the bureau de jugement and the parties receive a fresh convocation.

Where the parties settle a dismissal dispute at this stage, Article D1235-21 fixes an optional lump sum scale, the indemnité forfaitaire de conciliation, in months of salary: two months below one year of seniority; three months at one year, plus one further month per additional year up to eight years; ten months from eight to under twelve years; twelve months from twelve to under fifteen; fourteen months from fifteen to under nineteen; sixteen months from nineteen to under twenty-three; eighteen months from twenty-three to under twenty-six; twenty months from twenty-six to under thirty; and twenty-four months from thirty years of seniority.

Judgment, Départage and Appeal

If the case reaches the bureau de jugement, it is heard by employer and employee judges sitting in equal number. Because the bench is a parity bench, it can deadlock.

Article L1454-2 handles that. In the event of a split, the case is referred back to the same bureau de jugement or the same référé formation, presided over this time by a judge of the tribunal judiciaire in whose jurisdiction the conseil sits, and it is to be resumed within one month. Where the split happens before the bureau de conciliation et d'orientation, that bureau refers the case to a bureau de jugement chaired by the same professional judge.

Whether the judgment can be appealed depends on the value of the claim. Article D1462-3 sets the last instance competence threshold of the conseil de prud'hommes at 5,000 euros, applicable to proceedings introduced from 1 September 2020. At or below that figure the judgment is given in last instance and only a pourvoi en cassation is available; above it, an appeal to the cour d'appel lies within one month of notification of the decision.

Representation and Cost

Service-Public is explicit that a lawyer is not obligatory: a party may appear alone at the hearing. A claimant may also be assisted or represented by an employee or employer belonging to the same branch of activity, or by a spouse, PACS partner or cohabitant.

A défenseur syndical may assist or represent a salarié free of charge. Where a lawyer is instructed, aide juridictionnelle may cover the fees subject to the means conditions and to the lawyer accepting it. A représentant who is not a lawyer must produce a written authority to act.

The parity composition of the bench is the defining feature of the procédure prud'homale: the conseillers prud'hommes are drawn in equal number from the employeur side and the salarié side, which is why the départage before a professional judge exists at all.

What the Court Can Award

Winning at the prud'hommes and knowing what the win is worth are two separate questions. For a dismissal held to be without real and serious cause, the sum is set inside the statutory grid of Article L1235-3, and for a dismissal held to be null the grid does not apply at all and a six month floor with no ceiling takes its place.

Those figures, the full statutory table and the nullity grounds that displace it are set out on the page on licenciement abusif and the barème. Separate entitlements such as the indemnité de licenciement may also be claimed in the same proceedings, and the characterisation relied on by the employer, for example faute grave or an economic ground, shapes what is on the table. The France employment law hub collects the related guidance.

Frequently Asked Questions

When exactly does the twelve month deadline to contest a dismissal start?

Article L1471-1 of the Code du travail gives twelve months from notification of the termination. In a decision published in the bulletin on 21 May 2025 (pourvoi 24-10.009) the chambre sociale held that, applying Article 668 of the Code de procédure civile, postal notification takes effect for the sender on the date of dispatch but for the recipient on the date the letter is received. The limitation period therefore runs from the date the employee received the lettre recommandée avec accusé de réception. The Court added, applying Articles 2228 and 2229 of the Code civil, that the day on which the triggering event occurs is not counted in the period, so the clock effectively begins the following day.

Is the conciliation stage compulsory?

Yes, for the ordinary procedure. The case is placed before the bureau de conciliation et d'orientation, which Article L1454-1 charges with conciliating the parties and which may hear each party separately and in confidence. If conciliation succeeds in full the dispute ends and a procès-verbal records the agreement. If it fails, the bureau orients the unresolved points towards the bureau de jugement. The référé formation, used for urgent or uncontested claims, is a separate track.

How much does it cost to bring a claim before the prud'hommes?

A 50 euro electronic tax stamp is payable to introduce the claim, and claimants who benefit from aide juridictionnelle are exempt. The stamp is bought online by bank card. If it is not paid, one month is allowed to regularise, after which the claim is treated as inadmissible and must be filed again. Beyond the stamp, an employee who appears alone or is represented by a défenseur syndical pays no representation fee.

What happens if the four judges cannot agree?

The conseil de prud'hommes is a parity court, so a tied vote is a real possibility. Article L1454-2 provides that in the event of a split the case is sent back to the same bureau de jugement or the same référé formation, this time presided over by a judge of the tribunal judiciaire in whose jurisdiction the conseil sits. The case is to be taken up again within one month. That hearing is known as the audience de départage.

Which conseil de prud'hommes should receive the claim?

An employee may apply to the conseil for the place where the establishment they work in is located, the place where the contract was concluded, or the registered office of the employing company. An employee who works from home or outside any establishment applies to the conseil for the place of their own home. The claim is made by requête, on plain paper or on the cerfa form, sent or delivered to the greffe with a bordereau listing the supporting documents.