On September 10, 2025, France’s highest court (Cour de Cassation) ruled that any paid time off taken during a week should count as time worked for determining overtime hours beyond the normal workweek maximum of 35 hours. The court found that the Labor Code’s provisions on the topic conflict with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the Working Time Directive (2003/88), which established that employees should not be financially disadvantaged by exercising their right to paid leave.
In a second judgment on the same day, the court ruled that employees who go on sick leave during paid annual leave retain the right to claim the resulting unused annual leave at a later date. The ruling stems in part from proceedings launched by the European Commission in June 2025 for failure on the part of France to guarantee the right to paid annual leave under the Working Time Directive. Prior to the ruling, employees who became ill during annual leave lost those annual leave days when they were ill.
The outcomes of the rulings include:
In light of the broad nature of the court’s rulings and the overall complexities of managing working time and leave under France’s Labor Code, employers should review their HR and leave policies carefully and work with their payroll providers and legal counsel to ensure compliance. In addition, employers may be subject to retroactive claims by employees for past instances of unrecognized overtime or annual leave days that were lost due to illness (although the rulings do not expressly address this).
