Questions / Answers on the Labour Code

When the work is organized in successive teams, its duration is limited to 8 continuous hours per day, interspersed with a suspension of one hour, at most (art. On the other hand, in other situations, it is permissible to freely distribute the hours of work, on the week or the year, within the limit of 10 hours daily.

Alongside this first distinction, another must be made between situations in which hours of work are extended exceptionally by granting compensatory rest or remuneration on the basis of the ordinary hourly wage rate and the assumptions in terms of overtime, which is used by all companies to cope with extra work or work of ‘national interest’. The ceiling of authorized overtime has been set at 80 hours per year for each worker, with the possibility of raising it to 100 hours, after the opinion of the employee representatives in the company (art 196 and Decree No. 2.04.570 of 29 December 2004 laying down the conditions of employment of employees beyond the normal working hours).

Where the work is suspended collectively in all or part of an establishment by reason of accidental causes or force majeure, the ordinary period of work may be extended for the purpose of recovering the hours of work lost, one hour a day, within the limit of 30 days a year, provided that the daily working time does not exceed 10 hours (art 189).

When the organization of work imposes intermittent, preparatory or additional activities, the hours of work of the agents responsible for these tasks may also be extended without, however, exceeding 12 hours per day (Article 190). Similarly, all companies are allowed to extend the ordinary daily working hours to carry out urgent work intended to prevent imminent danger, to organize relief, to carry out repairs on buildings, materials and equipment or to avoid wasting materials.

This permission is granted however:

• the first day, without limitation.
• under the ceiling of two hours a day for the next three days (art. 192).

The employee may obtain either compensatory rest or remuneration for additional working time on the basis of the ordinary rate of his remuneration.

All the time the worker goes to work is not necessarily considered as actual work time, therefore he receives no consideration for:

• the rest period inserted in the hours of work, in particular that of meals.
• the time which, due to the intermittent nature of the activity, corresponds to a mere presence and not to the accomplishment of actual work such as guarding, fuel distribution at the stations, prevention services … etc. (art. 193)

Companies which have to carry out works of national interest or face an exceptional increase of work can make their employees work beyond the ordinary working hours by paying them a salary increased by 25% for the overtime done on the day, 50% when they take place at night and 100%, the weekly rest day, even if it would have given rise to compensatory rest (art 196201).

In this sense, overtime is defined as hours worked beyond the ordinary hours of work fixed by the employee, including, as the case may be, his extension as an exception or recovery (Article 197).

We also consider as such the hours of work completed beyond:

• 10 hours a day.
• 2288 hours in companies that divide work time over the year equally.

the ordinary hours of work in enterprises which adopt an equal division of labour over the year (Article 197-199).

The employer may suspend the weekly rest when the necessities of the enterprise so require, in relation to the nature of the work or the materials used or to cope with an exceptional increase in work (Article 212), this faculty is excluded. however, with respect to young workers, the disabled and women under 20 (art. 214).

Companies which grant weekly rest to all employees concomitantly may, if the nature of the work so requires, halve its duration for maintenance staff (Article 213).

In both cases, the deprivation of such rest must be compensated by a rest of the same duration to be granted during the month (art. 215 – Decree No. 2.04.513 of 29 December 2007 organizing weekly rest).

The work performed on the weekly rest day gives rise to a 50% increase if it is performed during the day and 100% at night (art 201 al 2).

Any employee who was in the employ of the employer the day before these days or who has completed 13 days of work during the preceding month is entitled to this rest. It receives, on this occasion, an indemnity equal to the daily wage (art 219 to 221 and decree n ° 2.04.426 of December 29th, 2004 fixing the list of the public holidays and not paid by the industrial, commercial enterprises, the liberal professions and the farms and forestry).

In companies which necessarily work on a continuous fire and who allocate the weekly rest by rotation, it is possible to make the employees work on the public holiday and paid by paying them an additional salary equivalent to the remuneration of a working day (art. 223-224).

In practice the employee maintains on the day of leave paid his daily salary despite the suspension of work; in addition, in the case of a worker who has been deprived of such rest, an indemnity of the same value.

This faculty is also recognized by entertainment establishments, those who use perishable goods, food retailers, cafés, restaurants and hotels (art 223).

Employees wholly or partly paid tips receive a compensatory rest in addition to their paid annual leave, even when their remuneration consists of a fixed portion paid by the employer (Article 224).

Paid annual leave is granted to each employee who has completed six less work in the same company (Article 231).

This leave is considered as actual working time and is included, when due, during the fixed-term contract (Article 233 and Order of the Minister of Employment and Vocational Training No. 343.05 of 9 February 2005).

fixing the periods during which workers employed on agricultural and forestry holdings and their dependencies may not benefit from paid annual leave).

The duration of the annual leave is calculated on the basis of one and a half days per month of actual work for ordinary employees (Article 231), it is increased:

• half a day a month for young workers under the age of 18 (Article 231).
• one and one-half days of additional leave for each five-year period of continuous or discontinuous service with the same company, up to a maximum of 30 days of annual leave.
• the number of paid and non-working days included in the annual leave granted (Article 235).