In France, the number of paid time-off days earned depends on the number of days worked by the employee in the company.
"In this article, we'll help you understand what Jours Ouvrables and Jours Ouvrés are and how to configure them in your time off policies.
What are the Jours Ouvrables?
Jours Ouvrables are days legally allowed for work (Monday to Saturday), excluding Sundays and public holidays.
Within Jours Ouvrables, any days when the employee is not working between Monday and Saturday are considered jour non travaillé.
What are the Jours Ouvrés?
Jours Ouvrés are days when the company operates, typically Monday to Friday, but it may vary depending on the type of business, such as restaurants.
Some businesses are open on Saturdays and closed on Mondays. Their Jours Ouvrés are therefore from Tuesday to Saturday inclusive.
💡 Suppose you work in a bank or a museum, for example, which is closed on Mondays but open on Saturdays. The jours ouvrés are Tuesday to Saturday inclusive. Monday is a jour ouvrable but not a jour ouvré.
How is time off deducted in Jours Ouvrables and Jours Ouvrés
Jours non travaillé
Jours non travaillés (JNT) are days when employees don't work, either due to their regular work schedule, contract hours, or other reasons. Sundays are always excluded, and for Jours Ouvrés, Saturdays are excluded too.
When you choose either 'Jours Ouvrés' or 'Jours Ouvrables,' we subtract the corresponding days not worked when processing time-off requests. However, there is a rule: it can only be deducted up to 5 days not worked per weekday within a specific period. For instance, if there are 5 Mondays within the same period already discounted as JNT, we'll discount 5 days instead.
❗ Keep in mind: We start counting time off days from the first day the leave is requested until the next day the employee must return to work. The days before do not count in the leave calculation even if they are not worked.
💡 For example in the case of Ouvrables, if an employee works from Monday to Friday (with Saturday as JNT) and requests a leave from Monday to Friday, we need to deduct 6 days from their time-off request, including Saturday.
Time off deducted from part-time contracts
Time off is calculated from the 1st day of the holiday period that the employee was supposed to work. All working days within the absence period must be counted, regardless of whether the employee works part of the day. For example, if an employee takes a week off, 6 working days or 5 working days will be counted, depending on their schedule.
If the employee only works a few days, the absence is counted from the 1st day they were supposed to work, continuing each day until the end of the absence.
❗ When calculating leave for part-time employees, regardless of the number of hours worked (e.g., 3 hours in the morning), time off is always discounted in days, not hours.
Examples of time off deducted in Jours Ouvrable
When working Mon-Fri (Sat JNT):
- Asking for a full week ⇒ 6 days (counting Sat JNT)
- Asking for Mon-Fri ⇒ 6 days (counting Sat JNT)
- Asking for Mon-Thu ⇒ 4 days
- Asking for Mon-Wed ⇒ 3 days
- Asking for Mon-Tue ⇒ 2 days
- Asking for Mon ⇒ 1 day
- Asking for Thu-Fri ⇒ 3 days (counting Sat JNT)
- Asking for Fri ⇒ 2 days (counting Sat JNT)
When working Tue-Sat (Mon JNT):
- Asking for a full week ⇒ 6 days (counting Mon JNT)
- Asking for Tue-Sat ⇒ 6 days
- Asking for Tue-Fri ⇒ counts 4 days (because you go back to work on Saturday)
- Asking for Tue-Thu ⇒ counts 3 days (because you go back to work on Friday)
- Asking for Tue-Wed ⇒ counts 2 days (because you go back to work on Thursday)
- Asking for Tue ⇒ 1 day
When working Tue-Wed & Fri-Sat (Mon & Thu JNT):
- Asking for a full week ⇒ 6 days (counting Mon & Thu JNT)
- Asking for Tue-Wed ⇒ 3 days (counting Thu JNT)
- Asking for Fri-Sat ⇒ 3 days (counting Mon JNT)
- Asking for Tue ⇒ 1 day (because you go back to work on Wed)
- Asking for Fri ⇒ 1 day
- Asking for Sat ⇒ 2 days (counting Monday JNT)
When working Wed-Fri (Mon & Tue & Sat JNT):
- Asking for full week ⇒ 6 days (counting Mon & Tue & Sat JNT)
- Asking for Wed-Thu ⇒ only 2 days (because you go back to work on Friday)
- Asking for Thu-Fri ⇒ 5 days (counting Sat, Mon & Tue JNT)
- Asking for Fri ⇒ 4 days (counting Sat, Mon & Tue JNT)
How to configure Jours Ouvrables and Jours Ouvrés
- On your sidebar, go to Settings
- Under Time, click on Time off
- Open a Time off policy
- Click on Add time off allowance
- In Type of allowance select Fixed balance
- Select the Absence types
- Configure the Cycle settings (begin and duration)
- In Allowance settings:
- The allowance is set in: days
- How should we display those days? Choose the option that best suits your needs
- Define the Base allowance days
- Select Ouvrable or Ouvrés
- Complete the configuration and click on Create allowance