OD FLASH | Working time accounting: validity of monitoring based on a pre-filled schedule that can be modified manually.

Conseil d’État, 1st – 4th joint chambers, April 17, 2025, no. 492418

Pursuant to article L.3171-2 of the French Labor Code, when all employees in a department or workshop do not work to a uniform collective working schedule, the employer is under a legal obligation to establish documentation enabling the calculation of individual working hours.

Under the terms of article D.3171-8 of the same code, working time must then be counted daily, by recording the start and end times of work, or on a weekly basis, by summarizing the number of hours worked by each employee.

On April 17, 2025, the Conseil d’Etat (France’s highest administrative court) ruled on the question of whether a software program set up to display a theoretical working schedule by default, with manual weekly rectification by the employee of the hours worked, complied with legal requirements on the control of working hours.

Following an inspection by the Labor Inspectorate, the Normandy Regional Directorate for the Economy, Employment, Labor and Solidarity (DREETS) fined the company 18,390 euros for failing to establish an objective, reliable and accessible system for monitoring working time.

In this case, the employer chose to use a computerized system to record employees’ working hours in advance, with weekly adjustments.

Taking the view, however, that the system put in place was objective, reliable and accessible, the company challenged the penalty before the administrative court.

By judgement dated March 23, 2023, the administrative court of Caen rejected this request. Its reasoning was confirmed by the Nantes Administrative Court of Appeal in a ruling dated January 9, 2024, which stated that the system did not meet the legal obligations concerning the calculation of working hours, since, until the day they were rectified, the number of hours worked each day might not correspond to the actual number of hours worked.

Seised of the matter, the Conseil d’État quashed the lower courts’ reasoning, pointing out that the requirement for an objective, reliable and accessible system for counting working hours applies to companies that have introduced individualized working schedules, thereby necessitating a record of actual working hours per employee, both daily and weekly (CE June 30, 2023, no. 466290 and no. 467553).

The Court further held that the use of a computerized time-tracking system is permissible, provided that any discrepancies between forecasted and actual hours are rectified on a daily and weekly basis. Lastly, it adds that, while the brevity of the correction period is a relevant criterion for assessing the objective, reliable and accessible nature of the system, a provisional discrepancy in the calculation of hours cannot, on its own, call into question the conformity of the system.

Accordingly, the Conseil d’Etat annulled the decision on the grounds of an error of law

In conclusion, the mere fact that the hours displayed by the software may temporarily deviate from the hours actually worked does not, per se, amount to a breach of legal requirements, provided that the system allows for prompt and accurate rectification.