They flirt and flaunt suntanned bodies on a golden beach for the raunchiest television show in France. Now the contestants of Temptation Island are going to be paid overtime for their exertions following a court judgment that could cripple the country’s reality TV industry.

The Paris Appeal Court ruled that participants in l’Ile de la Tentation, where couples try – and often fail – to resist a bit on the side, should be treated as production company staff with full employment rights.

Anthony Brocheton, Marie Adamiak and Arno Laizé have been awarded €27,000 (£20,000) each in connection with their appearance on the show. Dozens of other French reality TV contestants have been consulting lawyers.

Maître Jérémie Assous, the lawyer who brought the case, told The Times: “The consequences are enormous. It’s an earthquake for the television channels who broadcast these programmes. They can no longer impose scandalous rules on the contestants.”

The French version of Temptation Island involves four couples spending 12 days on an island off Mexico in the company of 11 handsome men and 11 attractive women who try to lead them off the straight and narrow.

At the end of the time, the couples – who are shown footage of their partners’ behaviour in the company of the tentateurs and tentatrices – announce whether they intend to stay together or split up.

But the hit show, watched by more than 4 million, fell foul of France’s stringent employment legislation.

Under their contracts with Glem, the reality TV division of TF1, France’s biggest private channel, contestants receive €1,525 for what is termed an advance payment on merchandising rights. Glem said that they were involved in entertainment and not work.

However, the Paris Appeal Court threw out the contracts, saying that participants should be treated as employees and their revenue as a salary.

With France applying a 35-hour working week, Mr Brocheton, Miss Adamiak and Mr Laizé were awarded €8,176 each in overtime when the court said that they had effectively worked 24 hours a day during the entire 12-day period.

In addition, they each received €817 for not being given a holiday, €500 for unfair dismissal, €1,500 for the wrongful termination of their contracts and €16,000 in damages for being employed illegally.

Television executives sought to play down the ruling, claiming that it would not apply to other shows. But Maître Assous said: “From now on they are going to have to apply the full employment legislation. The right to strike, for example, is enshrined in the constitution in France. That means that a contestant in a reality TV show can legitimately go on strike.”

He said that the three claimants had originally contacted him to question image rights involving the programme. He asked to see the contracts, judged them to be illegal and took the case to court.

Mr Brocheton told the newspaper Le Parisien that production company managers dictated the full extent of their activities on the island. “They said it was not work. But for us it was hell.”

Celebrities who take part in UK reality shows negotiate appearance contracts for up to £100,000 but ordinary members of the public usually receive compensation for working days lost and a share of any prize money.

Big Brother contestants soon realised that the £70,000 prize was only a fraction of the money they could earn through appearances in celebrity magazines after leaving the house. Jade Goody became a millionaire within two years of her appearance.

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