If the employer finds himself in one of the exceptional situations allowing recourse to overtime, and provided that he has followed the prior procedure of notification or ministerial authorisation, where applicable, the employer may require his employees to work overtime.
Except in cases of force majeure or work undertaken to deal with an accident that has already occurred or is imminent, the duration of the overtime is strictly limited to 2 additional hours per day. Thus, the total daily working time, including overtime, may not exceed 10 hours.
It should be noted, however, that the employer cannot require all his employees to work overtime.
Thus, teenage employees (Article L.344-10, prohibition in principle subject to exceptions), female employees or apprentices, who are pregnant or breastfeeding (Article L.336-1), employees working part time (Article L.123-5) and senior executives (Article L.162-8) cannot be compelled to work overtime.
Similarly, a user company cannot require a temporary employee to work overtime.