Romance at work: brief observations on the Nestlé case

The case is juicy enough to have made the headlines in the national media at the start of the new school year: Laurent Freixe, CEO of Nestlé, was ousted from his position because of an undeclared romantic relationship with a subordinate.

However, we should be careful not to jump to conclusions about French law on this subject.

Mr. Freixe was a top manager and probably a corporate officer rather than an employee. In this case, he was not dismissed but revoked.

Provided that the appointment was subject to French law (Nestlé is a Swiss entity), such dismissal generally occurs ad nutum (without cause) or for just cause, which is generally watered down and unrelated to the rigor of grounds for dismissal of an employee.

It was also revealed that the executive was in violation of Nestlé's code of business conduct.

Care must therefore be taken not to generalize the Nestlé case to French labour law, which is more nuanced in this area.

In a country where 14% of couples meet and 46% of employees have already had a ‘romance’ in the workplace, respect for privacy remains strictly guaranteed by law.

Legally, there is no obligation for an employee to disclose their intimate relationship with a colleague.

A company that dismisses an employee solely on such grounds would inevitably be sanctioned. Internal regulations inspired by the puritanism of American shareholders have paid the price for this.

The only accepted limits to this principle are based on conflict of interest, hindrance to the proper functioning of the company, or breach of the duty of loyalty.

One of the only cases upheld by the Court of Cassation to date is that of an HR director who concealed his relationship with a union representative while they were negotiating a redundancy plan at the same table.

However, French labour law remains deeply imbued with respect for privacy, a principle that will continue to provide cover for many workplace romances.