Restaurant collective agreement: working hours and shifts

The French restaurant collective agreement (CCN HCR, IDCC 1979) governs employment conditions across hotels, cafés and table-service restaurants in France. For HR managers and operations managers, mastering its working time provisions is essential: shift planning, overtime, split shifts and annualisation follow sector-specific rules that differ significantly from standard French labour law and, above all, from the fast-food collective agreement.

CCN HCR and fast food: two separate agreements

Two collective agreements cover the French restaurant sector, and applying the wrong one is a common mistake when establishments change format or operate across multiple activity types.

The CCN HCR (IDCC 1979) applies to hotels with or without restaurants, cafés, bars and brasseries, table-service restaurants and caterers organising events. It governs the vast majority of CHR establishments in France.

The fast-food collective agreement (IDCC 1501) covers quick-service, takeaway or self-service catering. A traditional restaurant or neighbourhood brasserie falls under the CCN HCR; a burger chain or a self-service cafeteria falls under the fast-food agreement.

Salary scales, working time rules and premium rates for unsocial hours differ between the two texts. Before anything else, the employer must verify that the establishment is correctly classified, by checking the APE/NAF code on the business registration and the precise definition of its principal activity. For a broader view of how collective agreements affect HR software choices, see our HRIS by industry guide.

Standard working hours and overtime in HCR

The legal working week of 35 hours applies to the HCR sector as it does to all branches of French industry. Hours worked beyond this threshold are overtime, subject to a premium rate or compensatory rest.

The statutory premium rates apply in the absence of more favourable collective provisions:

• Overtime from the 36th to the 43rd hour inclusive: 25% premium.
• Overtime from the 44th hour onwards: 50% premium.

The annual overtime ceiling is set at 220 hours per employee per year, unless a collective agreement provides otherwise. Beyond this ceiling, overtime entitles the employee to mandatory compensatory rest.

For establishments with pronounced seasonal peaks, monitoring this counter is a practical priority: a period of understaffing followed by a busy season can push employees into higher premium brackets if hours are not tracked in real time. A time tracking software configured for these thresholds prevents unpleasant surprises at the end of the reference period.

Annual annualisation of working time: the seasonal tool

Annualisation is the most widely used mechanism in HCR for absorbing activity fluctuations without triggering systematic weekly overtime payments. It allows the employer to vary the weekly working hours between a minimum floor and a maximum ceiling defined by a company or establishment-level agreement, over a reference period of up to one year.

In practice, peak weeks (Christmas and New Year, school holidays, major local events) can exceed the statutory 35 hours, offset by quieter weeks in the low season. Overtime is counted only at the end of the reference period, based on the total hours actually worked over the year.

Setting up annualisation requires a written collective agreement. The employer must inform employees of the indicative schedule at the start of the period and give sufficient advance notice of any changes, generally seven working days unless a duly justified emergency arises.

The individual count at the end of the period is mandatory. If an employee has worked more hours than the annual volume provided for, the excess constitutes overtime subject to premium rates and, where applicable, to mandatory compensatory rest if the annual ceiling is exceeded.

Split shifts and maximum daily working span

The double-service pattern, covering lunchtime and then evening service, is a daily reality in table-service restaurants. This structure generates split shifts: gaps between two work periods within the same day that do not count as effective working time and are therefore unpaid as such, unless collective provisions provide otherwise.

The CCN HCR regulates the conditions of these split shifts. The daily working span, defined as the gap between the start of the first period and the end of the last, is also capped. These limits are designed to ensure adequate rest between consecutive working days.

Company or establishment-level agreements can specify the applicable conditions locally, within the minimum framework set by the convention. Managers must check these provisions before drawing up service schedules, particularly for teams covering evening service followed by an early start the next morning.

Daily rest, weekly rest and Sundays in HCR

The minimum daily rest period is 11 consecutive hours between two working days. This threshold is a mandatory legal provision; no agreement may derogate from it. For establishments where evening service ends late, compliance with this rule constrains the start time for the following morning.

The minimum weekly rest period is 35 consecutive hours (24 hours of weekly rest plus the 11-hour daily rest). The CCN HCR allows this weekly rest to be granted on a rotating basis, which permits establishments to open seven days a week as long as each employee receives their rest within the week.

The hotel and restaurant sector has a permanent exemption from the obligation to grant Sunday as the day of rest. Establishments may open on Sundays without prefectural authorisation. In return, specific provisions apply to employees working that day, in the form of compensatory rest or a pay supplement, depending on what the convention and any applicable agreements provide.

Public holidays: planning ahead for employers

May 1st is the only public holiday that must legally be a rest day for all employees. HCR establishments must close or grant this paid day off without exception.

For the other ten statutory public holidays, the CCN HCR authorises work: a restaurant may therefore open on Bastille Day, Assumption Day or Christmas Day. Employees called to work on those days are entitled to the compensations defined in the collective agreement and any establishment-level agreements. The employer must ensure that these compensations are correctly recorded and applied, particularly to avoid disputes during labour inspections.

Managing worked public holidays in shift rosters is a recurring operational issue, especially for teams on rotating cycles that do not align with the standard calendar.

Building compliant schedules: obligations and tools

The service schedule (tableau de service) is the operational document underpinning all these rules. It must be displayed or sent to employees within the required deadlines, and any changes must respect the advance notice periods. In the event of a labour inspection, service schedules serve as evidence that amplitude and rest rules have been observed.

For establishments managing several rotating teams, building schedules manually carries a significant risk of error. Skello is a scheduling tool designed for the hospitality, restaurant and retail sectors that allows CCN HCR rules to be built into the system: overtime thresholds, mandatory rest periods and advance notice requirements. An automatic alert is triggered before a schedule is confirmed if any rule is breached.

Scheduling and payroll are closely linked: every incorrectly counted overtime hour will eventually appear on the pay slip. A payroll software connected to the scheduling system eliminates manual re-entry and calculation errors on premium rates. For the equally pressing challenge of hiring in the sector, hospitality recruitment software is a natural complement to shift management.

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