Four-day week: what the Deal law really allows

Since the Deal for Employment law of November 2022, a full-time worker can request to perform their work over <strong>four days</strong> instead of five. Three years later, requests are multiplying in SMEs — and so are misunderstandings. What the law allows, what it doesn't, and what to plan for.

What the law actually says

The law allows the compression of the 38-hour week over four days, i.e. 9.5 hours per day. It does not authorise a reduction of working time to 32 or 34 hours with salary maintenance — that's a company agreement or a unilateral employer decision, outside the Deal law framework.

The distinction is crucial: the "Deal law" four-day week is a simple schedule adjustment, at constant salary and workload. Working time reduction is another debate, often confused with the former.

The procedure

The worker submits a written request. The employer responds within the month, also in writing. Refusal must be motivated — not discretionary — by reasons related to the company's operation (continuity of service, team organisation, safety).

In case of agreement, an addendum to the contract formalises the arrangement for a maximum fixed period of 6 months, renewable. The worker can at any time request to return to the five-day week, with two weeks' notice.

Concrete limits

The daily maximum remains at 9.5 hours excluding sectoral derogations. Mandatory break times (15 minutes after 6 hours of continuous work) remain applicable. The 11-hour rest between two days remains guaranteed.

In other words, a day starting at 8am and ending at 6:30pm, including a 30-minute lunch break: that's legal. An 8am-7pm day with an hour break: that's already in overreach, to be framed by sectoral CCT.

Blind spots

Leave: nothing changes. The worker keeps their 20 legal days (calculated in working days in the legal sense, not in effective working days of their schedule). In practice, this means that "a week's leave" equals four days of their schedule but costs four or five days on their counter depending on the calculation method — a point to explicitly settle in the addendum.

Public holidays: same. If the public holiday falls on a non-worked day of their new schedule, there is no automatic compensation. Point to formalise.

Operational continuity: if the agreement is only granted to some employees of a team, the organisation must anticipate the days of partial coverage. An individual agreement has a collective impact; it's often the real legitimate obstacle to refusal.

What we advise in practice

For an SME receiving a first request, the path is simple: assess the operational impact, decide in principle to accept or refuse, formalise in writing with reasons within the legal deadline. If agreed, standardised addendum with the four points to settle (working days, leave, public holidays, reversibility).