Court of cassation, Labor Div., February 5, 2025, no. 22-21.892
At a meeting held on 6 April 2022, the central works council of an association decided to appoint an expert based on the grounds of serious risk. On 18 April, the employer issued a summons against the works council to annul the decision or, alternatively, to reduce the scope of the expert’s assignment.
By judgment of 30 September 2022, the president of the judicial court of Caen declared this summons inadmissible on the grounds that the 10-day appeal period had expired.
In support of its appeal, the employer argued that this period was expressed in full days, so that it had begun to run the day after the works council’s decision and that its expiry, normally scheduled for 16 April, was postponed until 19 April 2022. More specifically, as 16 April was a Saturday, the deadline was extended to the end of the first following working day, i.e.: 19 April, as 18 April was a public holiday (Easter Monday).
In its decision of 5 February 2025, the Court of cassation overturned the contested judgment. Referring to articles L. 2315-86 and R. 2315-49 of the French Labour Code, governing the procedure for challenging the appointment of an expert, and articles 641 and 642 of the French Civil Procedure CIde, governing the calculation of periods, it confirmed that the related time limit was 10 full days.
Moreover, as the Court of cassation has ruled, it is the issuance of the summons to the works council (and not its filing with the court) that interrupts the time limit (Cass. Labor Div., 6 June 2018, no. 16-28.029; Cass. Labor Div., 9 October 2024, no. 23-11.339).
As a result, the 10-day period for challenging the need for an expert appointed by a French works council:
is interrupted by the issuance of the summons.