Public holidays

Should public holidays, Sundays and non-working days paid by the government be treated as actual working time for the purposes of calculating overtime?

Public holidays and government-designated non-working days have the same legal status.

Any work carried out on these days is counted in full as overtime at a rate of +50% during the day and +100% at night. The rate may vary depending on collective agreements.

As for Sundays, how they are treated depends on the nature of the company’s business.

For companies providing the same services, whether on a discontinuous or continuous basis (for example: 8 am to 5 pm every day), the compulsory 24-hour weekly rest period must, in principle, be on a Sunday (see Article L.142 of the Code). The employer must not require employees to work on that day, even for overtime.

For businesses that usually operate continuously (shift work, construction and public works, etc.) or whose operations cannot be interrupted in the public interest (telecommunications, electricity, water, health, security, etc.), work on Sundays is paid at the same rate.

Benefits: Benefits are often in kind. They may be in cash in the form of reimbursement of actual expenses. This presupposes that the beneficiary does not decide on the expenditure in advance.

Benefits are tax-exempt up to 50 per cent of their value, provided that this is specifically set out in Decree No. 99-0894/MF-SG.