French criminal law regarding work constitutes an essential subdivision of criminal law, just like business penal law, fiscal penal law and environmental penal law. Though workplace relationships were not initially ignored, there was not a well defined penal legislation regarding work. Only at the beginning of the 19th century did the French legislator observed the lack of penal sanctions directed towards the employer’s non-observance of employment regulations. As a consequence, there were proposed a series of compulsory penal norms that aimed to defend the employees as best as possible. In France, a series of laws contributed to the emergence and development of labour penal law, starting with the 70s and until today, such as follows: the Law of July, 5th, 1972, the Work Code of July, 2nd, 1973, the Law of July, 1oth, 1973, the Law of December, 1oth, 1976, the Law of December, 31st, 1991, the Law of January, 7th, 2002, the Perben 2nd Law of March, 9th, 2004. Despite the importance that the French legislator has granted to penal law regarding work and labour, and despite the tendency of multiplication of penal deeds in connection with the organization, the direction and realization of the work process, in the past few years we have noticed recoil in the development of this law subbranch.