Disciplinary suspension

Other cases

Disciplinary suspension and precautionary suspension serve entirely different purposes and must be used at different times.

It is, however, possible to convert a precautionary suspension into a disciplinary suspension.

Suspension: two options

There are two completely different types of suspension: disciplinary suspension and precautionary suspension.

Disciplinary suspension is a disciplinary measure. It involves removing your employee from the workplace for a few days when they have committed a sufficiently serious offence to justify their temporary removal. The employee’s employment contract is then suspended: they do not come to work and are not paid. This disciplinary measure must be provided for in the company’s internal regulations, which must specify its maximum duration.

Unlike disciplinary suspension, precautionary suspension is not a disciplinary measure. It is a measure to suspend the employee’s employment contract pending a final decision on disciplinary action. It presupposes that the allegations against the employee are serious and justify their immediate removal from the workplace. It allows you to take time to consider the final decision you will take regarding the employee at fault by removing them from the workplace. You do not need to go through the disciplinary procedure to impose it, nor do you need to set a duration for this suspension.

The employee is not paid during the entire period of the precautionary suspension. Please note that they will only be deprived of their pay during the suspension period if they are ultimately dismissed for serious or gross misconduct.

Precautionary and disciplinary suspension: they are not imposed at the same time

A disciplinary suspension can only be imposed once the disciplinary proceedings have been completed.

Conversely, a precautionary suspension is imposed upon the initiation of disciplinary proceedings, and more specifically when the employee is summoned to a preliminary interview.

Judges may, in their discretion and on an exceptional basis, accept that a few days may elapse between the two if you have a valid reason, such as the need for time to carry out an inquiry or further investigations into the employee’s conduct.

Where an employee is notified of her suspension at the same time as she is summoned to the preliminary interview prior to dismissal, the suspension is of a precautionary nature. It does not matter if the employer decides to reinstate the employee to the company’s workforce after the preliminary interview and up until the notice of dismissal is served; this does not mean that the precautionary suspension can be reclassified as a disciplinary suspension.

It is entirely possible for you to convert the precautionary suspension into a disciplinary suspension as a form of sanction. In this case, the duration of the disciplinary suspension must be counted towards the period of the precautionary suspension. Bear in mind that if the duration of the disciplinary suspension is shorter than the period during which the employee was suspended as a precautionary measure, you will have to pay them for the remaining days not worked.