Working 10 to 12 Hours a Day in France: Agreements, Authorisation and Rest

Your French customer wants an installation completed in four long days. The proposed timetable contains 12 hours of actual work each day: 48 hours for the week. That weekly total may look reassuring, but it does not establish that the employees can lawfully work those daily hours.

For an employer sending technicians or a construction team to France, the decision is whether to change the organisation of the work, rely on an applicable collective provision or prepare a request to the labour inspector. That decision depends on the hours actually worked, the reason for the longer days and the other limits affecting the same employees.

This guide concerns adult employees under the general private-sector working-time rules, including posted employees. Transport, agriculture, young workers and other special working-time regimes need a separate assessment. French working-time and rest protections apply to posted employees within the framework of Article L.1262-4.

Count actual working time, not just the span of the day

Article L.3121-18 sets the ordinary daily maximum at 10 hours of actual work per employee, with separate routes for an inspector’s authorisation, urgency and the collective provisions in L.3121-19.

The span between the first start and final finish, often called the day’s amplitude in France, is a different figure. A 12-hour presence window is not necessarily 12 hours of actual work. Equally, calling part of that window a break does not automatically remove it from the working-time total.

Actual work includes time when the employee is at the employer’s disposal, follows its instructions and cannot freely attend to personal matters. Meal periods and breaks count as work when those conditions are met. A technician who must continue monitoring equipment during a nominal pause may therefore still be working. L.3121-1 and L.3121-2.

Record the proposed start, finish and genuine breaks for each employee. Establish the treatment of travel and other duties from their actual conditions; do not simply count every journey as work or remove all travel from the assessment. L.3121-4 contains a specific rule for travel to the place where the employment contract is performed, including compensation where it exceeds the normal commute.

Check whether an agreement permits the longer day

A company or establishment collective agreement or, failing that, a sector agreement can allow the daily maximum to be exceeded for increased activity or reasons connected with the company’s organisation. Under L.3121-19, that route cannot take actual daily working time above 12 hours.

Find the provision that actually authorises the longer day. Check its scope, conditions and any associated requirements before using it. A clause allowing overtime pay is not necessarily a clause increasing the daily maximum. The customer’s production agreement does not automatically govern an external contractor’s employees.

For a foreign employer, the applicability of the French sector provisions and any company agreement must be assessed for the real posting situation. Do not assume that a home-country arrangement or the employees’ willingness to work longer supplies the required basis.

The 12-hour ceiling here belongs to the collective-agreement route. It is not a general entitlement to schedule 12-hour days. An administrative authorisation must be read for the hours and conditions it actually permits, rather than treated as another automatic way to obtain the same timetable.

Use the administrative route for the temporary workload concerned

Under D.3121-4, a daily extension may be authorised where a temporary increase in activity is imposed. The listed reasons include work requiring completion within a defined time because of its nature, burdens on the company or commitments it has undertaken; seasonal work; and increased activity on particular days of the week, month or year.

This is not the same wording as the separate exceptional weekly-hours procedure. Explain the situation that fits the daily route instead of copying a weekly application or assuming that every fixed customer deadline proves eligibility.

For an installation, that explanation might connect the available site window to the technical sequence, the work that cannot reasonably be moved and the staffing alternatives considered. For a construction phase, it might explain the dependency on another operation and the temporary concentration of work. These are examples of useful supporting material, not findings that a particular project will be approved.

The employer sends the request, supporting reasons and the CSE opinion, if a CSE exists, to the labour inspector under D.3121-5. The inspector decides; this daily application should not be presented as a request that is always decided by the regional director. Identify the relevant territorial inspector and who is authorised to act for the foreign employer.

Test the proposed day against a shorter alternative

Consider a daytime intervention with no other work outside the stated hours. The proposed genuine non-working breaks are 10:30–11:00 and 14:30–15:00. Their placement leaves work periods of 3 hours 30 minutes, 3 hours 30 minutes and, in the longest version below, 5 hours.

The first option meets the ordinary daily working-time figure on these assumptions. The other two require a valid basis for exceeding 10 hours. None of the rows, by itself, establishes that the complete assignment complies with all applicable rules.

Under L.3121-16, when daily working time reaches six hours, the employee must receive a break of at least 20 consecutive minutes. Applicable collective provisions can provide for longer breaks under L.3121-17. The table uses genuine breaks; it does not assume that a meal while continuing to work satisfies the requirement.

Daily rest is normally at least 11 consecutive hours, subject to its own exceptions. The final row has only that interval before the next proposed start. An additional task after 20:00 or an earlier restart changes the calculation. A daily working-time extension does not itself authorise reduced rest. L.3131-1.

There is also little room for errors in the work total. If one of the 30-minute pauses in the final row is actually spent working, the total becomes 12 hours 30 minutes, not 12 hours. It no longer fits a provision or decision limited to 12 hours, and the break requirements also need to be rechecked. Organise real cover for breaks instead of relying on the label in the rota.

The operational alternatives include a shorter day, moving a task to a later date or sharing work between properly scheduled teams. Check each employee’s hours and the technical handover; adding names to a rota does not establish that the work can actually be divided.

Allow for the decision and preserve the evidence

D.3121-5 gives the inspector 15 days from receipt of the request to communicate the decision to the employer and employee representatives. Preparation of the supporting file and the relevant consultation come before that administrative period.

The Service Public entry for daily-hours authorisation lists a 15-day silence-means-acceptance period. Before relying on silence, establish the applicable request, competent recipient, receipt, completeness and precise scope of the decision invoked. Keep the application and correspondence together. An informal message left unanswered is not, on its own, a sound basis for sending out the longer timetable.

The August 2026 change to R.3121-8 concerns specified weekly-hours requests. It should not be used to replace this daily procedure’s 15-day period with 30 days.

If the decision does not permit the proposed hours, review the available schedule and the reasons before deciding on the next step. D.3121-7 provides for a hierarchical appeal to the regional director within one month of notification of a decision under D.3121-5 or D.3121-6. Identify the current DREETS/DRIEETS recipient and obtain the advice needed for that challenge. Do not treat an appeal itself as permission to apply the refused timetable.

Treat urgency as a separate, accountable decision

D.3121-6 addresses urgency within the situations covered by D.3121-4. It allows the employer to exceed the daily maximum under its own responsibility and requires immediate action towards the inspector.

If no application has been sent, the employer must immediately request regularisation, providing the required reasons and CSE opinion where applicable, together with an explanation of why work had to be prolonged without prior authorisation. If an application is already awaiting a response, the employer must immediately inform the inspector that it had to anticipate the decision and explain why. The inspector must communicate the decision within 15 days from receipt of the request to the employer and employee representatives.

This is not a general solution to late planning or a customer asking for more hours. Establish and document the urgency and the underlying workload circumstances; do not promise the customer that an extension will be regularised afterwards. The other applicable working-time and safety requirements still need attention.

For a foreseeable programme of long days, prepare the appropriate route in advance and retain an alternative schedule. Urgency should not become the planned operating model.

Prepare a file around the employees, hours and reasons

A useful preparation pack brings together:

1. Employer and assignment: legal employer, authorised signatory, sites, actual work, dates and employees concerned.
2. The proposed day: start and finish times, real breaks, actual working hours and the rest before the next shift.
3. The legal basis: any relevant collective provision, or the administrative route and hours requested.
4. The temporary need: the reason for the concentrated workload, its duration, technical or project evidence, and alternatives considered.
5. Consultation and correspondence: the required CSE opinion where applicable, submission, receipt, information requests and decision.
6. Connected limits: individual weekly totals, the relevant rolling average, rest and any Sunday or night-work questions.

D.3121-5 expressly requires the supporting reasons and CSE opinion where a CSE exists. The broader list is a practical preparation framework, not a universal official form.

For a foreign employer, clarify the actual consultation arrangements and the scope of anyone acting on its behalf. The customer’s approval does not replace the employer’s required consultation. If ALTALEO already represents your company for posting formalities, agree separately the assistance needed for this working-time file.

Recheck the week and the work actually performed

Four days of 12 hours produce 48 hours, but each day still needs its own valid basis. Five such days produce 60 hours, introducing the separate question of permission to exceed the ordinary weekly maximum. The guide to France’s 48-hour week and the exceptional route up to 60 hours addresses that decision.

The ordinary rolling limit of 44 hours over any 12 consecutive weeks is another check. Repeating a 48-hour programme can therefore create an average-hours problem even if the daily arrangement is supported. L.3121-20 and L.3121-22.

Weekly rest normally combines 24 consecutive hours with the applicable daily rest. Night workers have a separate daily limit and exception framework; the ordinary route discussed here cannot simply be substituted for it. Check weekly rest and the night-worker rule, alongside the guides to night work in France and Sunday work on a French worksite where relevant.

Keep actual start and finish times and breaks during delivery. If the team works through a pause or the operation overruns, recalculate from what happened. A shorter future day does not erase a previous excess. Pay, overtime and any compensation remain matters to address separately under the applicable rules.

Discuss the daily schedule before committing the team

Tell ALTALEO what the employees will do in France, the dates and the daily hours proposed. We can help organise the administrative preparation, assemble the timetable and supporting file, and coordinate follow-up in French. The assistance and quotation are agreed for the actual employer, sites and procedures; any specialist legal assessment or appeal work is identified separately.

A complete application pack is not needed for the first conversation. The next useful step may be to clarify an applicable agreement, adjust the work sequence or prepare a defined request before travel and customer commitments are fixed.

Discuss your French assignment and daily working-time requirements with ALTALEO.