Romantic relationships at work are not uncommon.
Several court decisions have examined this thorny question, which can have consequences in the professional sphere.
Lawyer Roland Perez addressed this topic on Saturday morning on Europe 1.
A third of French people fell in love at work and remained in this emotional relationship for several years, according to the job search engine Adzuna.fr.
More than half have even stayed together for more than a year, which means that private and professional life can become overlapped.
It is also very often the nightmare of employers who fear that the relationship will end badly and that the discomfort created by the breakup will affect the quality of work, not to mention the interest aroused by the romance on colleagues in the company. .
Lawyer Roland Perez raised this thorny question on Saturday on Europe 1.
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Find all of Roland Perez's reviews in podcast and replay here
A romance that can go wrong
The supreme judges have had to deal with cases on several occasions where one of the employees, or sometimes both concerned by the romantic relationship, have been dismissed.
Having contested their dismissal in the name of respect for private life, the Court of Cassation had to decide.
Almost 10 years ago, a trainer in a bank met a colleague he fell in love with.
A romantic relationship sets in and with it phases of ruptures and resumptions of the love story.
But one fine day, the romantic relationship turns really bad to the point that the trainer spies on his college by means of a GPS beacon that he installs without his knowledge, in his personal car, to know all his movements.
And via the bank's professional messaging system, he sends her rather very private messages when it seems that the colleague in question has clearly indicated to him the breakdown of their romantic relationship.
When the employer discovers the emails and especially the spy GPS, he immediately fires the employee.
Unjustified dismissal for the Court of Cassation
If the industrial tribunal ruled in favor of the employer, the Court of Appeal and the Court of Cassation called to re-judge the case, consider the unjustified dismissal.
The Court of Cassation, which confirmed the decision of the Court of Appeal, considers that the facts concern the private life of employees.
Moreover, the GPS was installed not on a company vehicle but in the private vehicle of the colleague.
And there had just been two intimate e-mails exchanged on the professional mailbox and it had not affected the smooth running of the business in any way.