Cass. soc., 3 June 2026, No. 24-19.545
An employee was subject to an annualised arrangement of working time based on a collective agreement providing for an annual duration of 1,607 hours, i.e. an average weekly duration of 35 hours.
She was absent on sick leave during periods of high activity in 2017 and 2018. The employee brought claims for overtime hours before the labour tribunal (Conseil de prud’hommes).
The Court of Appeal upheld her claims, holding, first, that the threshold triggering overtime hours had to be prorated in proportion to the duration of the absences and, second, that those absences had to be valued by reference to the number of working hours scheduled during the period concerned, in this case the period of high activity.
The employer lodged an appeal before the Court of cassation, complaining that the judgment had infringed the collective agreement, which made no provision for prorating the threshold in the event of absence.
Reinforcing its earlier case law, the Court confirms the principle of proration – sick-leave absences must be deducted from the threshold triggering overtime hours – but quashes the appeal judgment as regards the method of calculation adopted: the absence must not be assessed according to the number of hours scheduled during the period of high activity, but by reference to the average weekly duration over the reference period.
« In the absence of more favourable collective provisions, where working time is arranged over a reference period of several weeks, the threshold triggering overtime hours must, where the employee is absent on sick leave during a period of high activity, be reduced by the duration of that absence, assessed on the basis of the average weekly duration of work applicable within the undertaking during the reference period. »
It was therefore for the Court of Appeal, first, to assess the duration of the absence on the basis of the average weekly duration (35 hours); next, to subtract that duration from the triggering threshold applicable within the undertaking (1,607 hours) in order to determine the threshold specific to the employee; and finally, to count the hours actually worked, only those performed beyond that specific threshold constituting overtime hours.