In a ruling dated May 21st, 2026, the Paris Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the Paris Industrial Tribunal of December 13, 2022, which reclassified the employee's 33 years of fixed-term contracts as a permanent contract, with seniority dating back to March 19, 1989, and ordered France Télévisions to pay him compensation for the reclassification of the fixed-term contracts as a permanent contract and a seniority bonus.
The Paris Court of Appeal stated that "the duties of first assistant director performed by the employee for over thirty years, albeit intermittently, were part of the ongoing and continuous activity of France Télévisions and its structural, not temporary, staffing needs." The Paris Court of Appeal noted that, as correctly observed by the deciding judge, the certificates of payment for leave related to entertainment work showed that Mr. X had no other employer than France Télévisions, with very few exceptions. The judge also pertinently held that "the very high frequency of his collaborations, for varying and unpredictable durations, combined with the company's failure to communicate any schedule, prevented the employee from arranging potential collaboration with another employer." Since Mr. X thus established that he was required to remain permanently available to his employer, the request to reclassify the employment relationship as a full-time, open-ended employment contract was granted, and the lower court's judgment was upheld on this point.
The court awarded the first assistant director of France Télévisions €155,000 (compared to €127,000 in the tie-breaking decision) as back pay for the intervening periods. The parties may appeal to the Court of Cassation.
2) REASONS FOR THE DECISION
By decision of May 21st, 2026 (Division 6 - Chamber 10, Case No. 23/00423), the Paris Court of Appeal,
AFFIRMS the judgment under appeal, except insofar as it ordered France Télévisions to pay Mr. X the following sums:
- €116,276 in back pay for the periods between July 21, 2017 and August 30, 2022
- €11,627.60 in accrued vacation pay,
Ruling anew and adding thereto,
ORDERS France Télévisions to pay Mr. X the following sums:
- €141,821.29 in back pay for the periods between April 1, 2017 and December 21, 2022
- €14 €182.12 in respect of accrued paid leave,
ORDERS France Télévisions to provide Mr. X with a compliant summary payslip within two months of notification of this decision,
DECLARES that compensation claims shall bear interest at the statutory rate from the date of the judgment and that wage claims shall bear interest at the statutory rate from the date of receipt by the defendant of the summons to appear before the conciliation board, and that capitalization is mandatory pursuant to Article 1343-2 of the Civil Code,
ORDERS France Télévisions to pay Mr. X the sum of €2,000 pursuant to Article 700 of the Code of Civil Procedure,
ORDERS France Télévisions to pay the costs of the appeal.
2.1.Sur la requalification de la relation de travail en contrat de travail à durée indéterminée
Mr. X maintains that the position of first assistant director, which is essential to any audiovisual production, falls within the normal and permanent scope of France Télévisions' operations. He emphasizes that the company acknowledges he worked an average of 14.5 hours per week over the 10 years preceding the filing of his claim with the labor court, thus establishing the permanent nature of his employment. He asserts that he actually worked between 20 and 25 hours each week and notes that the company provides no concrete evidence to substantiate the inherently temporary nature of his employment.
Mr. X also argues that he worked beyond the legal limit of 151.67 hours per month in January and July 2018, July 2019, and January and September 2020, and maintains that this excess warrants reclassification as a full-time permanent contract.
The company responds that it was within its rights to use fixed-term contracts for specific purposes and emphasizes that a collective agreement was concluded in December 2006 regarding the conditions for using such contracts. It states that, between 2015 and 2020, it used Mr. X for 103 days per year, or an average of 8.5 days per month, and that the frequency of collaborations and the number of days worked cannot be inferred from Mr. X's employment as a permanent position that would have prevented him from working with another employer. It adds that he collaborated with three different channels: France 2, France 3, and France 4, which are independent in their day-to-day operations.
She disputes the claim that he was required to be permanently available to her and argues that the evidence presented by the labor court—namely, the near absence of other employers, the frequency of collaborations with the company for varying durations, and the lack of communication regarding work schedules—is insufficient to prove this.
According to Article L. 1242-1 of the French Labor Code, a fixed-term employment contract, regardless of its reason, cannot have the purpose or effect of permanently filling a position related to the normal and ongoing activity of the company.
Article L. 1242-2 of the French Labor Code authorizes the use of fixed-term contracts of customary use in certain sectors of activity defined by decree, for jobs where it is customary not to use permanent contracts due to the nature of the work and the inherently temporary nature of these jobs, particularly in the performing arts, audiovisual, and film production sectors.
France Télévisions, which has employed Mr. X since March 19, 1989, operates in the audiovisual sector, which is listed in Article D. 1242-1 of the Labor Code as a sector in which fixed-term contracts of customary use may be concluded.
Furthermore, the collective agreements applicable to the employment relationship, namely the inter-branch collective agreement of October 12, 1998, concluded in the audiovisual sector and extended by decree of January 15, 1999, and the national collective agreement for the broadcasting sector of December 22, 2006, concerning employees under fixed-term contracts for specific purposes and extended by decree of June 5, 2007, stipulate that fixed-term contracts for specific purposes are authorized for the assistant director position held by Mr. Xa.
The determination by collective agreement of the precise list of positions for which fixed-term contracts for specific purposes may be used does not exempt the judge, in the event of a dispute, from verifying the existence of concrete elements establishing the inherently temporary nature of the position in question, in this case, the position of director held by the individual concerned.
The company's statements regarding the average number of days worked per month by Mr. X are irrelevant, as they pertain to the company's internal work organization choices and are therefore entirely at its discretion. Furthermore, intermittent work does not preclude permanent employment.
The concrete justification for the use of successive fixed-term contracts can only be derived from an examination of the actual nature of the work in question, and not from the contracts concluded by the parties, regardless of the labeling they may have given them.
Moreover, the employee's wishes or any other activities he may have undertaken, possibly for other employers, have no bearing on the nature, whether temporary or not, of the director's position for which France Télévisions used fixed-term contracts.
The company's argument that the employee worked for several different channels within the France Télévisions group does not establish the temporary nature of the employment for which the fixed-term contracts were concluded.
Furthermore, the development and programming of daily or weekly programs for which Mr. X worked, such as *Des chiffres et des lettres*, *Stade 2*, or *Tout le sport*, on a television channel, constitute one of the company's core activities. The company produces and broadcasts such programs daily, year-round, requiring the services of a first assistant director.
Therefore, the duties of first assistant director that the employee has performed for over thirty years, albeit intermittently, were part of the ongoing and continuous operations of France Télévisions and its structural, not temporary, need for staff. The reclassification of the employment relationship as an open-ended employment contract is therefore justified as of March 19, 1989, without the need to examine the second ground for reclassification raised by the employee concerning repeated exceeding of the legal working time of 151.67 hours per month.
The judgment under appeal will be upheld on this point.
2.2. Regarding the reclassification of the employment relationship as a full-time, open-ended employment contract
Mr. X argues that, with the exception of a few isolated days, he has had no other employer than France Télévisions and has never refused a single work date, as evidenced by the statements of payment for his paid leave for entertainment industry work from 2017 to 2019. He states that he never knew in advance what his work dates would be during the week or month and that he was forced to be constantly available to the company if he did not want to lose his job.
The company responds that Mr. X could go several weeks without being contacted and asserts that he was, in fact, entirely free to accept or refuse the company's requests.
The court reiterates that, pursuant to Articles L. 1221-1 of the French Labor Code and 1103 of the French Civil Code, the reclassification of a fixed-term employment contract as an open-ended contract only affects the contract's term and leaves all other contractual stipulations, particularly those relating to working hours, unchanged.
The payment of wages constitutes consideration for work performed but remains due even in the absence of work, provided the employee remained available to the employer. Consequently, in the event of the reclassification of a series of fixed-term employment contracts as an open-ended contract, the employee is only entitled to back pay for periods not worked if they can prove that they were available to the employer to perform work during those periods.
As the presiding judge rightly noted, the statements of paid leave for entertainment work show that Mr. X had no other employer than France Télévisions, with very few exceptions. He also pertinently concluded that "the very high frequency of his collaborations, for varying and unpredictable durations, combined with the company's failure to communicate any schedule, prevented the employee from arranging potential collaboration with another employer."
M. X établissant ainsi qu'il devait rester à la disposition permanente de son employeur, la demande visant à requalifier la relation de travail en contrat de travail à durée indéterminée à temps plein est accueillie, le jugement entrepris étant confirmé sur ce point.
2.3. Regarding Salary Calculation
Mr. X is claiming a full-time salary of €55,000 per year, or €4,583 per month, calculated by applying a 30% discount to the salaries he received under his fixed-term contracts. He points out that the salary of €3,240 that the company wants him to receive corresponds to that of an assistant director, whereas he is a first assistant director.
The company responds that the average hourly rate applied to Mr. X for 2020 was €26.40, resulting in a monthly salary of €4,004.10 (26.4 x €151.67). It submits the payslips of eleven assistant directors on permanent contracts with seniority ranging from 1980 to 2000, which show that their average gross salary is €3,240.
The court notes that the payslips submitted by France Télévisions cannot serve as a basis for determining the salary of a first assistant director on a permanent contract, as they only concern assistant directors. It therefore provides no relevant evidence.
The application of a 30% discount to salaries received under fixed-term contracts for specific purposes corresponds to a collective agreement concluded by the public broadcasting employers' association, which was in effect within the company until 2009. This agreement stipulated that employees on fixed-term contracts for specific purposes received 30% higher pay than employees on permanent contracts, to account for the temporary nature of the contract. France Télévisions confirms this principle of increased pay in its submissions.
As the calculation method is not contested and the employer has provided no evidence to challenge the accuracy of the figures presented by the respondent, the court finds that Mr. X's reference salary amounts to €55,000, or €4,583 per month. The judgment under appeal will be upheld on this point.
To read the full article, click on the link below.
Frédéric CHHUM avocat et ancien membre du conseil de l’ordre des avocats de Paris (mandat 2019-2021)
CHHUM AVOCATS (Paris, Nantes, Lille)
e-mail: chhum@chhum-avocats.com
https://www.instagram.com/fredericchhum/?hl=fr
.Paris: 34 rue Petrelle 75009 Paris tel: 0142560300
Nantes: 41, Quai de la Fosse 44000 Nantes tel: 0228442644
Lille: : 45, Rue Saint Etienne 59000 Lille – Ligne directe +(33) 03.20.57.53.24
Pas de contribution, soyez le premier