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You don’t want or can’t move… but your company wants to impose a transfer on you. Can you oppose it? How?

At first, no

If your employment contract does not contain a clause relating to the place of work, the employer cannot impose a transfer on you outside your geographical area. Transfer outside the geographical sector is a modification of the employment contract. initial.

The mobility clause

When a mobility clause is included in the employment contract, the employer can impose a transfer on the employee, but only in the sectors covered by the mobility clause. In this case, the employee must go to this place of work. The employer must however respect certain principles: he must indicate in the clause the geographical sectors concerned and inform the employee of his decision sufficiently in advance so that he can prepare for it. The employee can refuse this measure if he can prove that this transfer was only considered with the intention of harming him.

The sedentary lifestyle clause

When a sedentary lifestyle clause is provided for in the employment contract, the employer cannot change the employee’s place of work. This is an express clause, stipulated in the employment contract, which indicates that the workplace is fixed at such a place and that it cannot be modified. If ever the employer decides to ignore it, he is committing a fault and the employee will be able to assert his rights before the Labor Court.

Economic difficulties of the company?

If real economic difficulties arise for the company and the only solution for redeploying staff lies in their transfer, then the employees have an interest in accepting it. Indeed, in case of refusal on their part, they expose themselves to economic dismissal. They then lose their job but remain eligible for unemployment benefits and receive severance pay.
DAMY Law Firm, Nice, The Mutation, Update 2016.