The fact that an employer makes their employees work overtime is subject to a special regime (Articles L. 211-22 et seq. of the Labour Code).

Indeed, overtime working is permitted only in exceptional cases and may require prior notification to the ITM (article L. 211-23 of the Labour Code). The employer must also keep a special register containing, among others, the indication of overtime worked by the employees (article L. 211-29 of the Labour Code).

That being said, are employees obliged to work overtime at the request of their employer?

A judgment dated October 28, 2013 provides an example.

In 2010, a company had to deliver an important order to its most important client (company T) and had put an employee (employee M) in charge of that order.

After the order was delivered to the company T, the latter called back at 3:45 pm to report a problem with the water main. The hierarchical superior of M had then asked the latter to go off to handle repairs for the client.

Employee M had refused on the double grounds that he did not have the time as he went off-duty at 4:30 pm and as he was not in a position to repair the breakdown. Despite his hierarchical superiors’ insistence, employee M remained categorical about his refusal.

Therefore, the employer made the decision to dismiss employee M with immediate effect, on the pretext that this type of refusal had already occured in the past (about 10 times according to the employer).

In the first instance, the court had found that an isolated event (the reproaches related to the previous refusals having been too vague) could not justify a dismissal with immediate effect, by quoting the formulation of the constant jurisprudence:

« The employee’s refusal to work overtime on the evening of June 8, 2010, even though it may have embarrassed the employer, does not constitute a refusal to work or an insubordination, therefore a serious misconduct… »

That decision had been upheld on appeal by an order dated March 12, 2015 also finding that the dismissal in question was unfair (however on a slightly different ground, as the employee had provided a certificate from a medical practitioner which showed that he had an appointment, in the evening at 6:30 pm, with his medical practitioner in France (75 km from the headquarters of the company which demanded repairs).