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 in 2000 through the second Aubry law. The point was not to ban longer hours, but to set the legal week below the historical norm so that anything over 35 became, by definition, overtime. 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 2017 right-to-disconnect amendment.

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 and the choice between pay and rest depend on the applicable collective bargaining agreement.

#RTT Days: Built-In Compensation

When a company sets its standard working week above 35 (say, at 37 hours), the difference (2 hours per week) is compensated through RTT days (jours de réduction du temps de travail). Over a year, those 2 weekly hours add up to about 12 additional days off, on top of the 5 weeks of paid leave.

RTT days are extremely common in French companies. The trade-off is straightforward: working a 37 or 39-hour week, with the surplus translated into 10 to 15 extra days off per 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 (max 218 under L3121-58), and the weekly hours cap does not apply day-by-day.

The system has been repeatedly challenged. The European Court of Human Rights and the French Cour de cassation have both ruled that forfait jours contracts must:

• Be supported by a written collective 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

Companies operating forfait jours without these safeguards have faced reclassification claims that exposed years of unpaid overtime liability.

#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 with derogation (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, with negotiated exceptions for retail, hospitality, and tourism. The Sunday-rest rule remains one of the most enforced provisions of French labor law.

#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. Many collective agreements expand this to 45 minutes or one hour for industries with longer days.

#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. The reference period for accrual is 1 June to 31 May.

Many sectors add additional leave: hairdressing, restaurants, and some manufacturing collective agreements grant 6 weeks. Cadres often have 5 weeks plus the RTT supplement.

#The Right to Disconnect

The 2016 Loi Travail (effective 1 January 2017) added Article L2242-17 to the Code du travail, requiring companies with 50 or more employees to negotiate a "right to disconnect" with their works council. The law does not prescribe what disconnection looks like; it requires that the company define it.

Common implementations:

• 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

Failure to negotiate exposes the employer to claims; failure to honor agreed terms exposes to wage claims (work done outside agreed hours can be reclassified as overtime).

#Record-Keeping After CCOO

France's response to the CCOO ruling has been quieter than Spain's or Germany's. French law has long required time tracking for hourly workers and certain salaried groups (L3171-1 and L3171-2 of the Code du travail). The novelty in CCOO is that all workers must have a recording mechanism, including cadres on forfait jours.

The French Cour de cassation has cited CCOO in several 2021 to 2024 decisions, particularly in cases where forfait jours workers contested their workloads. Without proper recording, employers have lost on the burden of proof.

Practical takeaway: even where the Code du travail does not expressly require it, employers running forfait jours should record daily working hours.

#Inspection and Penalties

The Inspection du travail (Labor Inspectorate) enforces. The body has wide investigative powers and can impose:

• Administrative fines (up to EUR 4,000 per worker for record-keeping breaches, doubled for repeat offenses)
• Criminal referrals for systematic violations
• Wage claims through the Conseil de Prud'hommes (Labor Court)

Recent inspections have focused on forfait jours breaches in consulting, IT, and finance. Settlements in five-figure or six-figure EUR amounts per worker are common in published rulings.

#Practical Compliance Checklist

1. Document the working time framework. Standard week, applicable collective agreement, RTT days, and any forfait jours arrangements.
2. Track hours for everyone. Hourly workers, salaried workers, and forfait jours workers all benefit from recording. For forfait jours, the recording is your defense against reclassification.
3. Honor the 11-hour daily rest. Even for forfait jours; this is not optional.
4. Negotiate the right to disconnect. For companies of 50+, this is non-negotiable.
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 says otherwise.

#Common Questions

Is the 35-hour week really 35 hours? The legal frame is 35; actual practice ranges from 35 to 39, with the surplus compensated through pay or RTT. Many companies operate at 37 or 39.

Can a cadre refuse a forfait jours contract? Yes. The contract requires both parties' written consent. A refusal cannot trigger detriment.

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.

#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 compensate for hours worked above 35 in a typical workweek
• Forfait jours contracts allow autonomous workers to work in day counts (max 218 per year), with safeguards
• The right to disconnect must be negotiated for companies with 50+ employees
• CCOO has not produced a new statute, but courts cite it heavily for forfait jours claims

#Sources

• Code du travail, Articles L3121-1 et seq. on legifrance.gouv.fr
• Loi Travail 2016 (Loi El Khomri)
• Cour de cassation, Soc., 14 December 2022 (forfait jours, n. 21-19.244)
• Inspection du travail enforcement statistics

#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
• Right to disconnect: new laws in France, Spain, Australia for the cross-border view of disconnection laws