Your French customer has reserved a short shutdown and expects your technicians to complete the work in six long days. The team is available, the project manager has agreed the timetable and the price includes overtime. Before confirming that schedule, your company needs to check a separate question: is it entitled to have those employees work more than 48 hours that week?
For an employer sending employees to France, the practical task is to turn the proposed hours into a timetable that can actually be used. That means identifying whether an exceptional weekly authorisation is needed, preparing the reasons and supporting information, allowing time for the decision and checking the other working-time rules alongside it. The customer’s agreement and a completed SIPSI declaration do not settle those questions.
This guide concerns adult employees under the general private-sector working-time rules, including employees posted temporarily to France. Transport, agriculture, young workers and other special regimes need a separate assessment. French working-time and rest protections form part of the rules applicable to posted employees under Article L.1262-4 of the Labour Code.
Identify the weekly limit before promising the completion date
Under the general rules, actual working time must not exceed 48 hours in the same week. In exceptional circumstances, an administrative authorisation can allow that limit to be exceeded for the duration of those circumstances, without taking the week above 60 hours. The authorisation has to match the period and the work concerned. Labour Code, Articles L.3121-20 to L.3121-22.
The 60-hour figure is therefore the ceiling of this exceptional weekly route, not an ordinary schedule available whenever a client requests it. This route does not authorise a week above 60 hours. A quotation, an employee’s willingness to work overtime or payment at an enhanced rate does not replace the applicable permission.
Also separate the 35-hour legal weekly reference from the maximum working-time limits. The reference is relevant to overtime; it does not mean that every week above 35 hours needs this exceptional authorisation. Conversely, paying overtime correctly does not remove the 48-hour ceiling. Service Public, working-time limits.
For the project team, the first useful document is a proposed schedule for each employee: working days, start and finish times, breaks and total actual work. Time during which an employee remains at the employer’s disposal, follows its instructions and cannot freely attend to personal matters can be working time even if the schedule calls it a break. Labour Code, Article L.3121-1 and Article L.3121-2.
Explain what makes the additional workload exceptional
The application is made by the employer and must explain the circumstances that create a temporary, extraordinary increase in work. Article R.3121-10 requires those reasons and the period requested. A useful file connects the exceptional situation to the additional hours needed.
A customer saying that a shutdown slot cannot move is relevant project information. It does not, on its own, establish that the statutory conditions are met. Explain the technical constraint, the work that has to be completed within that window, why the proposed staffing or sequencing cannot reasonably absorb it and how long the exceptional workload will last. A repeated operating pattern should not be described as exceptional merely because the normal team is too small for it.
For an installation or maintenance project, practical supporting material might include the customer’s intervention timetable, the technical sequence, dependencies between tasks, the employees and skills required, and the alternative arrangements considered. These are preparation examples, not a universal list of documents imposed by the Labour Code. They help turn a general request for “60 hours” into a reasoned application for a specific employer and period.
Ask for the hours the project actually needs. If the proposal is 54 hours, identify and justify that proposal. There is no commercial benefit in treating 60 hours as the default simply because it is the statutory ceiling of the route.
Identify the applicant and the competent authority early
The employer sends the request to the competent labour inspector. The regional director decides on the inspector’s report. The applicable procedure is described in Article R.3121-10. In practice, the contact must be identified within the current DREETS/DRIEETS and territorial labour-inspection organisation for the assignment.
For a foreign company, identify the legal employer, the French worksite and the person authorised to act for the company. Where several employers or sites are involved, check the appropriate territorial handling and the scope of each request before assuming that one decision covers the whole project. The appointment of a representative for posting formalities does not by itself establish the scope of an additional mandate to prepare or submit a working-time application.
The employer must include the opinion of its social and economic committee, the CSE, if one exists. The procedure must reflect the actual employee-representation situation; a customer’s internal approval should not be substituted for the required employer consultation. For an overseas employer, clarify the applicable consultation arrangements while preparing the file, rather than discovering that question at submission.
ALTALEO can help organise the French administrative preparation around the employer, site and timetable, and agree the application assistance needed. This lets the project team establish the relevant steps before committing travel, accommodation and the customer’s production arrangements.
Build the timetable around the response period
The current wording of Article R.3121-8, effective from 16 August 2026, provides for a response within 30 days from receipt of the request for the exceptional weekly derogation under L.3121-21. The decree of 13 August 2026 clarified this period in the Labour Code.
Those 30 days do not include the time your team needs to assemble the schedule, substantiate the exceptional workload or complete the relevant consultation. Before fixing the mobilisation date, also allow for the identification of the correct recipient and any missing information that has to be supplied.
A tacit-acceptance regime of 30 days is listed for this request in the annex to Decree No. 2014-1290. It must not be treated as permission to start automatically 30 days after any email was sent. Before relying on silence, establish receipt by the competent authority, the completeness of the application, any request for information required by the applicable legislation or regulations and the precise scope of the decision that could arise. The rules on receipt and incomplete applications affect the calculation of the period; not every supplementary question has the same effect. Code governing relations between the public and the administration, Article L.114-5.
Keep the receipt and correspondence with the application. If the position depends on a tacit decision, establish the evidence of that decision before using the extended timetable. An attestation of the implied acceptance can be requested under Article L.232-3; it provides evidence of a decision, rather than creating it. A deadline in the customer’s contract is not a substitute for that evidence. Have a workable alternative schedule if the required permission is not established in time.
Check the other limits on the same schedule
A weekly authorisation addresses the exceptional weekly ceiling. It does not clear every other restriction affecting the same employees. Before using the proposed timetable, check at least the following matters under the rules applicable to the assignment:
| Check | General reference for adult employees | Consequence for the project |
|---|---|---|
| Average weekly working time | Normally 44 hours over 12 consecutive weeks; other routes can apply | A permitted exceptional week can still create a separate rolling-average issue |
| Daily actual working time | Normally 10 hours; exceptions have their own conditions | A weekly decision does not automatically allow longer days |
| Daily and weekly rest | Normally 11 consecutive hours daily; weekly rest normally combines 24 hours with daily rest | Check the interval between shifts and between working weeks, not only the weekly total |
| Night work | Specific rules can apply to the organisation of night work and to night workers’ limits | Do not apply the ordinary weekly analysis as if it settled the night-work rules |
| Sunday work | The applicable Sunday-rest regime must be identified | A weekly-hours decision is not a Sunday-work authorisation |
Sources: Service Public, working time, daily rest, L.3131-1, weekly rest, L.3132-2, night-work rules.
There is a separate distinction between the ordinary 44-hour average, an applicable route up to 46 hours, and the additional exceptional arrangements above that level. Permission to exceed 48 hours in one week should not be assumed to cover a separate average-hours derogation. Identify the relevant weekly totals and the applicable averaging period before deciding what application or agreement is needed. Article L.3121-22 sets the ordinary average; L.3121-23, L.3121-24 and L.3121-25 address the different exceptions.
Example: a 54-hour intervention week
Assume that six days are planned, Monday to Saturday, from 08:00 to 18:00, with a genuine one-hour non-working break each day. That represents 9 hours of actual work per day and 54 hours for the week. If work resumes on Monday at 08:00, the interval from Saturday at 18:00 is 38 hours.
This illustrates why a schedule has to be checked in several ways: the daily totals and the rest interval do not remove the need to address the week above 48 hours. The example is not a finding that a particular assignment is eligible for authorisation or complies with every applicable rule.
The rolling average also depends on the other weeks in the relevant record:
| Illustrative 12-week record | Average | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Eleven weeks of 40 hours plus one week of 54 hours | 41 hours 10 minutes | The weekly maximum and the rolling average answer different questions |
| Eleven weeks of 44 hours plus one week of 54 hours | 44 hours 50 minutes | The same proposed week can raise an additional average-hours issue |
Use the employees’ relevant working-time records when preparing the real calculation, and review each affected rolling period as the assignment progresses. A single favourable calculation at the start does not settle every later week.
Prepare an application that can be assessed
Bring together the following information as a practical preparation pack, adapted to the requested procedure:
- Employer and assignment: legal employer, authorised signatory, French site, work to be carried out, relevant dates and employees concerned.
- Exceptional circumstances: what has caused the temporary extraordinary workload, the period affected and supporting project or technical material.
- Proposed working time: individual or clearly defined group schedules, actual hours, breaks, rest periods and the weekly totals requested.
- Other applicable constraints: the relevant average-hours calculation, daily limits, night or Sunday work, collective provisions and any separate decisions already obtained or still required.
- Consultation and submission evidence: the required CSE opinion where applicable, any clarification needed for the employer’s situation, the application sent, its receipt and subsequent exchanges.
R.3121-10 expressly requires the supporting reasons, requested period and CSE opinion where a CSE exists. The broader preparation pack above helps identify questions before they delay the file; it does not mean that every authority uses an identical application form.
Once the position is established, keep the work within it
Check the employees, dates, weekly hours and any conditions covered by the decision before distributing the final schedule. If the shutdown is extended, the team changes or another site is added, assess whether the existing position still covers the revised assignment. Do not assume that permission for one period automatically carries over to the next.
Keep actual start and finish times, breaks and rest records during the work. Overtime pay, payroll evidence and any compensation remain separate matters to address under the applicable rules. For posted employees, the representation and documentary arrangements also need to keep the relevant records available for inspection.
Where the intervention includes Sunday or night work, use the related guides to identify the applicable requirements and any additional decisions needed: Sunday work on a French worksite and night work in France.
Discuss the schedule before confirming your team
Tell us what your team will do in France and the hours your customer has proposed. ALTALEO can review the administrative preparation needed, help assemble a reasoned file and coordinate the follow-up in French. We agree the scope and quotation around the actual assignment, including any distinct Sunday, night or average-hours questions that need to be addressed.
The first discussion does not require a complete application pack. It should help establish the next useful step while there is still time to adjust the project schedule.
Discuss your assignment and working-time requirements with ALTALEO.
