Article L. 3171-2 of the French Code du travail requires every employer to record the daily working time of every employee not on a collective schedule. Implementation is set by Article D. 3171-8. The CJEU ruling CCOO (C-55/18, 14 May 2019) reinforces this obligation at the European level.
Key texts and case law
- Article L. 3171-2 Code du travail — daily recording obligation
- Code du travail — working time — Articles L. 3121-1 et seq.
- CJEU CCOO ruling (C-55/18, 2019) — European basis
- Inspection du travail — controls and penalties
- CSE consultation — Article L. 2312-38
- RGPD & CNIL — employee data protection
What employers must do in practice
- Set up a reliable and objective recording system
- Capture start, end and breaks of each working day
- Retain records for at least 1 year (Article D. 3171-16) — recommended 5 years in practice
- Keep documents available to the Inspection du travail and the employee
- Consult the CSE before deployment (Article L. 2312-38)
- Comply with RGPD — processing register, DPIA where required
How TimeClock 365 meets the obligation
- Automatic daily recording — app, NFC, biometric, browser
- Reliable and tamper-resistant — full audit log, server timestamps
- Accessible to employees — every employee sees their own data
- RGPD-compliant — EU hosting, sub-processing contract, ISO 27001
- CSE-ready — configurable access rights, reporting for consultation
- Sector templates — pre-configured for BTP, healthcare, hospitality, logistics
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