Source date: 2026-05-18
Must a days-based flat-rate agreement specify the number of working days? Published on May 19, 2026 - Entreprendre Service Public / Direction de l'information légale et administrative (Prime Minister's Office)
In a ruling delivered on April 9, 2026, the Cour de cassation clarified the validity requirements for days-based flat-rate agreements.
Article L3121-64 of the Labor Code sets out the terms for individual flat-rate agreements based on hours or days. These agreements must specify the number of hours, the reference period for the flat rate, and the main features of the individual agreements.
An employee learned of the termination of their employment contract and decided to bring the case before the labor court (Conseil de prud'hommes), arguing that their individual flat-rate agreement was invalid. They pointed out that the company agreement did not mention the number of days included in the flat rate.
The employer was found liable and appealed. According to the employer, the agreement provided for a monitoring and tracking system managed by the hierarchical supervisor. Therefore, the absence of any indication regarding the number of days should have been offset by these measures.
The Court of Appeal also ruled against the employer and declared the flat-rate agreement null and void. In the judge's view, the agreement failed to meet the conditions set forth in Article L3121-64 of the Labor Code because the number of flat-rate days was not stated in the agreement. No other mechanism can compensate for the lack of a specific numerical indication; the agreement must explicitly state the number of working days, otherwise it is invalid. The employer then lodged an appeal with the Cour de cassation.
The Cour de cassation upheld the Court of Appeal's decision. It reiterated that a days-based flat-rate agreement must specify the number of working days and that a failure to do so cannot be compensated by other measures.
Thus, merely mentioning the legal maximum limit of 218 days is insufficient to validate the days-based flat-rate agreement applied in this case.
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Source: Service-Public professionals