An employee takes legal action so that the termination of his employment contract is reclassified as dismissal without real and serious cause. He criticizes his employer for not respecting his right to weekly rest. In fact, the employee had occasionally worked 11 or 12 consecutive days.

The Court of Appeal found in favor of the employee and ordered the employer to pay him damages for non-respect of the right to rest. For her, making an employee work 11 or 12 consecutive days is a violation of theArticle L3132-1 of the Labor Code which forbidden “to make the same employee work more than 6 days a week”. The employer appeals to the Court of Cassation.

The Court of Cassation quashes and annuls the appeal decision. It notes that article L3132-1 of the Labor Code does not require that weekly rest be granted no later than the day following the sixth consecutive working day.

According to the Court, in order to ascertain whether the weekly rest period is respected, it is necessary to rely on reference period from monday 0:00 am to sunday “24 hours” (calendar week).

Thus, it is it is possible for the employer to have his employee work for more than 6 consecutive days as long as he has a day off during the calendar week.

An employee can therefore work 12 consecutive days over 2 weeks provided that he gets a day off during each week.