The 35-Hour Workweek in France: What Employers Track

France did not invent the 35-hour workweek; it inherited a 39-hour week from earlier reforms and shortened it through the two Aubry laws of 1998 and 2000: from 1 January 2000 for companies with more than 20 employees, and from 2002 for smaller ones. The reform did not ban longer hours; it set the legal week below the historical norm so that anything over 35 became, by definition, overtime. More than twenty-five years later, the 35-hour week is still the legal frame, but the way French employers reach it has evolved through RTT days, forfait jours, and the right to disconnect (in force since 2017).

This post explains what French employers actually have to track, how the durée légale interacts with overtime and rest, and where French law lands on the post-CCOO recording question.

#Quick Reference

#The Legal Frame

#35 Hours as the Reference, Not the Cap

The durée légale of 35 hours per week is the legal reference for when overtime begins. It is not a maximum. The actual maximum is 48 hours in any single week and 44 hours on average over 12 consecutive weeks.

Hours above 35 are heures supplémentaires (overtime hours), which must be either:

• Paid at a premium (typically 25 percent for the first 8 hours, 50 percent thereafter), or
• Compensated through time off (repos compensateur)

The exact premium (at least 10 percent) and the choice between pay and rest depend on the applicable company or branch agreement; without one, the 25 and 50 percent rates apply (L3121-33, L3121-36). The agreement also sets the annual overtime quota, which is 220 hours per employee by default (L3121-30, D3121-24). Since a September 2025 ruling, paid leave taken during the week counts toward the overtime threshold for employees whose hours are counted weekly (Cour de cassation, Soc., 10 September 2025, No. 23-14.455).

#RTT Days: Built-In Compensation

When a company or branch agreement organizes working time over a period longer than a week and sets the standard week above 35 hours (say, at 37 hours), the extra hours can be offset by RTT days (jours de réduction du temps de travail), on top of the 5 weeks of paid leave. Overtime is then counted at the end of the reference period (L3121-41, L3121-44).

RTT days are common in French companies, but there is no universal annual number: it depends on the agreement, the weekly schedule and the calendar year.

#Forfait Jours: The Executive Carve-Out

For managers (cadres) and other workers with genuine autonomy, the law allows a forfait jours contract: the worker commits to a number of working days per year (up to 218 under the collective agreement, L3121-64), and the 35-hour reference and the daily and weekly maximum hours do not apply (L3121-62). Daily and weekly rest still do.

The system has been repeatedly challenged. The Council of Europe's European Committee of Social Rights has found it in breach of the European Social Charter, most recently in 2021, and since 2011 the French Cour de cassation has required forfait jours to protect the worker's health and rest. Under the Code du travail, forfait jours contracts must:

• Be based on a collective agreement and the worker's written agreement
• Include real safeguards on workload and work-life balance
• Provide regular monitoring (typically annual interviews)
• Respect the 11-hour daily rest and the 35-hour weekly rest

Without these safeguards, the forfait jours contract can be held void or without effect, and the worker can then claim overtime pay going back up to three years (L3245-1).

#Daily, Weekly, and Rest Rules

The headline weekly cap is 48 hours, but several intermediate limits apply:

• Daily cap of 10 hours, extendable to 12 by company or branch agreement (L3121-19)
• Weekly cap of 44 hours averaged over 12 weeks (L3121-22)
• Specific sectors (transport, hospitality) have sector-level adjustments

11 hours of consecutive daily rest is mandatory. Weekly rest is 35 consecutive hours, taken in one block on Sunday by default (L3132-3), with exceptions set by law, for example for hotels, cafés and restaurants (L3132-12, R3132-5) and for some retail, such as shops in tourist zones or on Sundays designated by the mayor (L3132-25, L3132-26).

#Breaks

20 minutes of rest break is mandatory after 6 hours of work. The break must be a real interruption, not a sandwich at the desk. A company or branch agreement can set a longer break (L3121-17).

#Annual Leave

Five weeks of paid leave (30 working days, counting Monday through Saturday in the French system) accumulate at 2.5 working days per month of actual work (L3141-3). By default, the reference period for accrual runs from 1 June to 31 May, unless an agreement sets another start date (R3141-4, L3141-10).

A collective agreement can add extra leave, for example for age or seniority (L3141-10). RTT days, where they exist, are separate from paid leave.

#The Right to Disconnect

The 2016 Loi Travail (effective 1 January 2017) added the "right to disconnect" to the topics of mandatory collective bargaining, today Article L2242-17 of the Code du travail. That bargaining is held with the unions in companies with a union delegate, which in practice usually means 50 or more employees. If no agreement is reached, the employer draws up a charter after consulting the works council (CSE). Forfait jours agreements must also say how the right to disconnect works (L3121-64). The law does not prescribe what disconnection looks like; it requires that the company define it, and a charter must also provide training and awareness measures.

Possible measures:

• No emails sent after 19:00 or on weekends, with automatic delay until next working day
• "Disconnect" days when no internal communication is sent
• Explicit rules for international teams with time-zone differences

Ignoring the topic leaves the employer exposed, and work actually done outside agreed hours still counts as working time, so it can lead to overtime claims.

#Record-Keeping After CCOO

France's response to the CCOO ruling has been quieter than Spain's or Germany's: no new statute. The Code du travail already requires individual time records for employees who do not all work the same posted collective schedule: daily start and end times (or hours worked) and a weekly total (L3171-2, D3171-8). For forfait jours, the employer records the days and half-days worked (D3171-10). These records must be kept available to the labor inspectorate for one year, or three years for forfait day counts (D3171-16).

The French Cour de cassation has cited CCOO in several decisions since 2021, mostly in overtime disputes. It held that letting employees declare their own overtime does not by itself show that the employer met its duty to monitor working time (Soc., 5 July 2023, No. 21-24.122), and confirmed that employees not on the collective schedule must have their hours recorded under D3171-8 (Soc., 13 November 2025, No. 23-19.055). A missing recording system does not automatically lose the case, though: the employer can still present other evidence of the hours worked (Soc., 7 February 2024, No. 22-15.842).

Practical takeaway: match the record to the working-time regime. Record daily hours for staff outside a collective schedule; for forfait jours staff, record the days and half-days worked and follow up workload and rest.

#Inspection and Penalties

The Inspection du travail (Labor Inspectorate) enforces. Inspectors have wide investigative powers, and breaches can lead to:

• Administrative fines imposed by the regional labor administration on an inspector's report (up to EUR 4,000 per worker concerned for breaches of maximum hours, rest or record-keeping rules, with the cap doubled for a repeat breach within two years; L8115-1, L8115-3)
• Criminal proceedings: failing to keep the required time records is a petty offense fined per employee concerned (R3173-2)
• Separately, employees can bring wage claims before the Conseil de Prud'hommes (Labor Court)

In a dispute over hours, the employer must provide evidence of the hours actually worked (L3171-4), which makes reliable work hours tracking for IT professionals and other staff part of the defense file.

#Practical Compliance Checklist

1. Document the working time framework. Standard week, applicable collective agreement, RTT days, and any forfait jours arrangements.
2. Track time for everyone, in the right unit. Record daily hours for staff not on a common collective schedule. For forfait jours, record days and half-days worked and follow up workload and rest; that record is your defense if the contract is challenged.
3. Honor the 11-hour daily rest. Even for forfait jours; this is not optional.
4. Organize the right to disconnect. Cover it in the mandatory bargaining where there is a union delegate (usually 50+ employees), or in a charter if no agreement is reached.
5. Monitor the charge de travail. Annual interviews for forfait jours workers should be substantive, not box-ticking.
6. Calculate overtime correctly. First 8 hours at +25 percent, beyond at +50 percent, unless your collective agreement sets another rate (at least 10 percent).

#Common Questions

Is the 35-hour week really 35 hours? The legal frame is 35. Companies can schedule more (for example 37 or 39 hours), with the surplus paid as overtime or offset by RTT days under a working-time agreement.

Can a cadre refuse a forfait jours contract? Yes. A forfait jours requires the employee's agreement and a written individual agreement (L3121-55), so it cannot be imposed.

Does the right to disconnect apply to teams in other time zones? The obligation is on the French employer. International schedule constraints must be addressed in the disconnection agreement, often through clear handoff protocols.

Are public holidays included in the 5 weeks? No. France has 11 public holidays, which are separate from the 5-week annual leave.

What about teleworkers? The 35-hour week, the daily and weekly limits, and the right to disconnect all apply to remote workers exactly as they apply to on-site workers, so time tracking for remote employees has to cover them the same way.

#Summary

• France's 35-hour week is the legal reference for when overtime starts, not a maximum
• The actual weekly maximum is 48 hours; daily maximum is 10
• RTT days can offset hours scheduled above 35 when a working-time agreement provides for them
• Forfait jours contracts allow autonomous workers to work in day counts (218 per year in the collective agreement), with safeguards
• The right to disconnect is a mandatory bargaining topic where there is a union delegate (usually 50+ employees), with a charter if no agreement is reached
• CCOO has not produced a new statute, but the Cour de cassation cites it in working-time disputes

#Sources

• Code du travail, Articles L3121-1 et seq. on legifrance.gouv.fr
• Loi Travail 2016 (Loi El Khomri)
• Cour de cassation, Soc., 29 June 2011 (forfait jours, No. 09-71.107)
• Ministry of Labour guide to forfait agreements (Code du travail numérique)

#Where to Go Next

• The EU Working Time Directive explained for the European baseline
• The ECJ CCOO ruling: why time tracking is mandatory for the case cited by the Cour de cassation