French Employment law – Radio/ TV Mercato – intermittent workers and Journalists: Get Your CDD Reclassified as Permanent Contracts and Have Terminations of Collaboration Reclassified as Unfair Dismissals!

Summer is here.

TV and radio programs that have sometimes been running for decades can be cancelled.

Welcome to the audiovisual job market.

Freelance performers and journalists can find themselves unemployed overnight, even after working on a program for several years.

Do freelance performers and journalists have any rights?

Some collective bargaining agreements provide for severance pay at the end of a fixed-term contract. Can they get more?

Can freelance performers and journalists take legal action against their employers and demand that successive fixed-term contracts be reclassified as permanent contracts, that wages be paid during the periods between fixed-term contracts, or that overtime be paid?

This article aims to provide you with answers.

1) Reclassification as a permanent contract.

When the three conditions for using a fixed-term contract for specific purposes (CDDU) outlined above are not met, your contract must be reclassified as a permanent contract (CDI).

Furthermore, a fixed-term contract for specific purposes (CDDU) that is not in writing and/or does not state the reason for its use by the company is likely to be reclassified as a permanent contract (CDI).

1.1) Burden of proof of the inherently temporary nature of employment under a fixed-term contract for specific purposes (CDDU).

The burden of proof rests with the employer to demonstrate that:

• There is a consistent practice of not using permanent contracts (CDI) for your position;

• Your position is inherently temporary.

1.2) What can you claim from your employer if your fixed-term contracts (CDDU) are reclassified as permanent contracts (CDI)?

If your employment is reclassified as a permanent contract (CDI) and no dismissal proceedings have been initiated against you, the termination of your employment will be deemed unfair and without just cause.

You can therefore claim various sums before the labor court (Conseil de prud'hommes) for:

• Compensation for the reclassification of your fixed-term contract (CDD) to a permanent contract (CDI) [3];

• If applicable, compensation for failure to provide the fixed-term contract within 2 days [4];

• The statutory severance pay to which an employee on a fixed-term contract would be entitled (notice period, statutory or contractual severance pay);

• Compensation for dismissal without just cause [5];

• Back pay for the periods between two fixed-term contracts if you are permanently available to your employer (see 3 below);

• A 13th-month bonus if provided for by the collective agreement or custom for permanent contracts.

The reclassification of a fixed-term contract as a permanent contract must have the effect of placing the employee in the position they would have been in had they been hired from the outset on a permanent contract.

The Court of Cassation has stated that “[…] the reclassification of a fixed-term contract as a permanent contract for an intermittent worker, which retroactively grants them the status of a permanent employee of the company, must place them in the position they would have been in had they been recruited from the beginning under a permanent contract” [6].

The compensation for reclassifying a fixed-term contract as a permanent contract must be calculated based on the average monthly salary.

This average monthly salary must be determined by taking into account all salary components, "including those with a periodicity longer than one month." [7]

2) Are you permanently available to your employer and have no other employers? Claim payment for the periods between fixed-term contracts.

The Court of Cassation ruled in 2024 that an employee hired under several non-consecutive fixed-term contracts (with periods between each contract) whose contracts are reclassified as permanent contracts can claim back pay for the intervening periods, provided they can prove they remained available to the employer during those periods. [8]

In a aforementioned judgment of the Paris Court of Appeal of 21 May 2026 [9], the latter recalled that it follows from the provisions of articles L1221-1 of the Labour Code and 1103 of the Civil Code that the reclassification of a fixed term employment contract into an open term contract only concerns the term of the contract and leaves the other contractual stipulations unchanged, in particular those relating to the duration of work.

The payment of wages constitutes compensation for work performed but remains due even in the absence of work, provided the employee remained at the employer's disposal.

Therefore, if a series of fixed-term employment contracts is reclassified as a single open-ended contract, the employee is only entitled to back pay for periods not worked if they can prove they were available to the employer during those periods to perform work.

As the presiding judge rightly noted, the certificates of payment for leave for entertainment industry professionals show that Mr. X had no other employer than France Télévisions, with very few exceptions. The judge also pertinently held that "the very high frequency of his collaborations, for varying and unpredictable durations, combined with the company's failure to communicate any schedule, prevented the employee from arranging potential collaboration with another employer." Mr. X thus established that he was required to remain permanently available to his employer. The request to reclassify the employment relationship as a full-time, open-ended employment contract is granted, and the judgment under appeal is upheld on this point.

In practice, to obtain back pay for the intervening periods, you must establish that you were permanently available to your employer:

• No other employers or very few other employers;

• Schedule changes;

• Last-minute notice period.

3) Statute of limitations: what is the time limit for taking action?

You have two years from the end date of your last fixed-term contract to take action and request the reclassification of your fixed-term contract as a permanent contract [10].

This period begins to run from the moment you knew or should have known the facts enabling you to exercise your right.

Regarding termination, the time limit for taking action is 12 months from the date of notification of termination [11].

 Sources.

• Article L1242-1 du Code du travail
• Article L1242-2 du Code du travail
• Cass. soc 23 janvier 2008 n°06-43.040 ; n°06-44.197.
• Cass soc. 8 fév. 2023, n° 21-17.971
• Cass soc. 8 fév. 2023, n° 21-16.824
• Cass soc. 8 fév. 2023, n° 21-10.270
• Cass soc. 28 fév. 2024, n°22-11.149
• Article L1471-1 du Code du travail
• Requalification des 33 ans de CDDU en CDI = un 1er assistant réalisateur de France Télévisions obtient 155 000 euros de salaires de périodes interstitielles (CA Paris 21 mai 2026) [12]
• CDD – intermittents – journalistes – L’indemnité pour non-transmission du CDD dans les 2 jours et l’indemnité de requalification en CDI se cumulent !.

Frédéric CHHUM avocat et ancien membre du conseil de l’ordre des avocats de Paris (mandat 2019-2021)

CHHUM AVOCATS (Paris, Nantes, Lille)

e-mail: chhum@chhum-avocats.com

www.chhum-avocats.fr

https://www.instagram.com/fredericchhum/?hl=fr

Paris: 34 rue Petrelle 75009 Paris tel: 0142560300

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