Infosys fined €175,000 by French regulator over work hours system

MUMBAI: For Infosys, the latest compliance challenge wasn’t about beating the clock, it was about recording it. The IT services giant has been fined €175,000 (around Rs 2 crore) by a French labour authority after its employee working-time recording system was found to fall short of the country’s legal requirements.

The penalty was imposed by DRIEETS Île-de-France (Direction régionale et interdépartementale de l’économie, de l’emploi, du travail et des solidarités), the regional authority responsible for employment and workplace compliance in France.

In a regulatory filing, Infosys said the authority identified shortcomings in the company’s system for recording employee working hours, citing deficiencies in its reliability, auditability and monitoring capabilities for certain categories of employees.

The Bengaluru-headquartered company said it received the communication regarding the penalty on 24 July before disclosing the development to stock exchanges.

Infosys did not specify which employee groups were covered by the findings, nor did it indicate whether the French regulator had directed it to modify or replace its existing time-recording system.

Despite the regulatory action, the company said the financial impact would be negligible.

“There is no material impact on financials, operations or other activities of the company,” Infosys said in its filing.

The case highlights the strict nature of French labour laws, which require employers to maintain accurate, reliable and auditable systems to track employee working hours, overtime and mandatory rest periods. Workplace monitoring and time-management practices have come under increasing scrutiny in France as regulators tighten enforcement of employment regulations.

Infosys also explained the timing of its disclosure, stating that it first needed to verify the communication received from the regulator and assess the appropriate course of action before informing investors.

While the €175,000 penalty is relatively modest for a company of Infosys’ scale, the case underscores the growing compliance burden facing multinational employers operating across multiple jurisdictions, particularly in Europe, where regulators are placing greater emphasis on workplace governance, employee monitoring and labour rights.