Nullity of dismissal for violation of a top executive’s right to the intimacy of his private life

The French Supreme Court upheld the nullity of the dismissal of a general manager who had been terminated by his employer for gross misconduct,including sending emails with vulgar or even pornographic content from his professional email account to three men, one of whom was a colleague.

In this ruling, the French Supreme Court reaffirmed that employees are entitled to the respect of their private life, even in the workplace. In this case, the exchanged messages were strictly private, were not intended to be made public and did not constitute a breach of the employee’s obligations.

The dismissal, based on matters related to the employee’s private life, was deemed null due to the violation of the employee’s fundamental right to to the intimacy of his private life.