An employee can work up to twelve consecutive days, the Court of Cassation estimates

France’s highest court has clarified a point in the Labor Code by relaxing the possibility of working more than six consecutive days.

“It is prohibited to employ the same employee more than six days a week.” This principle of the Labor Code gives freedom to some interpretations: terms “week” does it mean seven consecutive days or does it refer to one calendar week, Monday to Sunday? The Court of Cassation firmly made this clear, by relaxing the possibility of working more than six days in a row, in its decision handed down on November 13 2025.

He decided the case of an employee who had worked eleven consecutive days, then twelve consecutive days several months later, during a trade show held on a weekend. He has asserted his right to a weekly rest break at the industrial tribunal. However, the Court of Cassation decided that this break means per calendar week.

What is clear is that an employee can work up to twelve days in a row, for example Tuesday to Saturday of the following week, because he gets one day of rest in each calendar week (Monday of the first week and Sunday of the second week). This has caused many disputes between workers and employers: from now on, the answers no longer contain any ambiguity.