An employee who works part time… cannot work full time!

In labor law there are a large number of concepts which are not at all clear. Fortunately, on the contrary, there are obvious facts that it is worth remembering.

A part-time worker can work more than the duration stipulated in his contract

(this is called “additional” hours) but the completion of these hours is framed by a double limit:

No more than 1/10 (or 1/3 in the case of a collective agreement) of the working time.

His total working time must in any case be less than 35 hours.

Practical example – if an employee works 30 hours per week:

If no collective agreement

he will be able to work 3 additional hours per week at most (1 / 10th of 30 hours)

If collective agreement

In any case, he will be limited to 34 hours of work per week and will therefore not be able to perform more than 4 additional hours.

The Court of Cassation recently recalled that if the part-time employee works 35 hours, even once over the duration of the contract, his contract can be reclassified as a full-time employment contract, and the latter can therefore request a reminder of salary corresponding to the difference between his part-time and full-time.

So pay attention to additional hours
because the litigation risk is really not neutral.

Last reminder about part-time work, the minimum duration (except for derogatory collective agreement) is now 24 hours per week, with some exceptions (students under 26 and employees expressly requesting to work less than 24 hours for certain reasons).