An annual hours agreement (forfait annuel en heures) allows a predetermined number of foreseeable overtime hours to be built into an employee’s working time over the year. It is open only to managers who are not subject to the collective working schedule and to employees who enjoy genuine autonomy in organising their time. What matters is real, effective autonomy, not the job classification or the freedom nominally described in the collective agreement.
In this case, a store manager had been placed under such an agreement. The Court of Appeal upheld it, noting that he set his own attendance hours within the constraints inherent in his post. The Court of Cassation set that reasoning aside : since the manager was required to organise his hours around the shop’s opening and closing times and the presence of the staff he supervised, he did not have genuine autonomy. The Court has reached the same conclusion before for retail managers tied to opening hours.
Where the agreement is invalid, it is void : the employee reverts to the ordinary method of counting working time and may claim payment for the overtime actually worked, together with damages where appropriate.
Cass. soc., 20 May 2026, no. 24-19.989
