Trial Period According to the Law

1- I am in a trial period with a company, and I received an offer from another company that is their client. Am I allowed to accept this offer, knowing that my current contract includes a clause that prohibits me from associating with or working with a competitor or client of my employer?

The trial period allows the employer to assess the employee's professional skills, and the employee to ensure that the position is satisfactory. It can be renewed once, but renewal is not automatic. During this period, both parties can terminate the employment contract without any compensation. However, after at least one week of work, termination initiated by the employer not justified by serious misconduct can only take place with the following notice periods:

• 2 days before termination if paid daily, weekly, or bi-weekly;
• 8 days before termination if paid monthly.
• If, after the expiration of the trial period, the employee were to be dismissed without having committed serious misconduct, the employee must receive a notice period of not less than eight days.

The trial period for indefinite contracts is set at:

• 3 months for executives and similar;
• One and a half months for employees;
• Fifteen days for workers.
• For fixed-term contracts, it cannot exceed:
• One day for each week of work, up to 2 weeks for contracts of less than 6 months;
• 1 month for contracts of more than 6 months.

Shorter trial periods than those mentioned above may be provided for in the employment contract, collective agreement, or internal regulations.
If you have not yet signed and legalized the contract, your employer cannot fault you if you are recruited by their client, for two reasons. First, the absence of a contract specifying this prohibition. Second, you are still in a trial period, you could leave whenever you want, and for whomever you want, because your commitment is not yet final. This precariousness in which you find yourself must be quickly compensated by your freedom to engage with another company, of course subject to respecting the provisions of the labor code.

2- Does the new employer have the right to ask me for a certificate of cessation of work, or a copy of the resignation letter?

For the certificate of cessation of work, which is an absolute right of the employee who has terminated their employment contract, the second employer is entitled to request it, quite simply, because their liability may be engaged if it is proven that they are involved in your poaching.
In this sense, Article 42 provides: "When an employee, having abusively terminated their employment contract, takes up their services again, the new employer is jointly and severally liable for the damage caused to the previous employer in the following cases:

• When it is established that they intervened in the poaching;
• When they hired an employee they knew was already bound by an employment contract;
• When they continued to employ an employee after learning that this employee was still bound to another employer by an employment contract (...)"

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