In a ruling handed down by the French Supreme Court (Cour de Cassation) on September 08, 2021, an employer was condemned for requiring his employee to work overtime every day.
The situation was as follows:
An employee had a contractual working week of 35 hours.
The employer asked his employee to work around 50 minutes of overtime every day. This had the effect of increasing the employee's working time to 39 hours a week, every week.
After several weeks of work, the employee refused to work the requested overtime.Inprinciple, the granting of overtime is a matter for the employer's management, and the employee's refusal to work overtime constitutes misconduct (unless a valid reason is given).
There is, however, a limit to this principle: the employer must not systematically resort to overtime, since in this case, working these hours is no longer part of the normal performance of the contract. The consequence is a change in the employee's normal working hours.
However, to modify an employee's usual working hours, his or her express agreement is required (an amendment to the employment contract).
Conclusion:
Employers must not SYSTEMATICALLY ask employees to work overtime. Overtime must be occasional.
