Court of cassation, Social Division, 8 october 2025, n°24-12373, n°24-10566
In two rulings issued on October 8, 2025, the Court of Cassation settled the debated issue of granting meal vouchers to teleworkers: while some lower courts favored the principle of equal treatment, others considered that employers were not required to grant meal vouchers to teleworkers, due to the absence of additional costs linked to eating outside the home.
In the first case, the Court held that an employer cannot refuse to grant meal vouchers to employees solely on the grounds that they perform their work remotely. An employee placed on remote work during the Covid-19 pandemic had the meal vouchers he had previously received taken away. The Court of Cassation found this to be wrongful, since the only condition for granting meal vouchers is that the meal is included within the employee’s working hours. Accordingly, as long as teleworkers enjoy the same rights as employees physically present in the company, the employer cannot refuse to grant meal vouchers solely because they work remotely.
In the second case, employees at the company’s headquarters benefited from an in-house cafeteria, while employees in regional offices received meal vouchers. During the March 2020 lockdown, the employer placed all employees on remote work, closed the company cafeteria, and suspended the meal vouchers previously granted to regional employees.
According to the Court of Cassation, the suspension of the meal vouchers was not justified, as the practice constituted an established company custom that had not been properly withdrawn. Moreover, under the principle of equal treatment, all employees were entitled to receive meal vouchers since they were now in the same situation, regardless of their previous circumstances.