French MPs will this week debate a bill that would allow some people to work on May 1st – the public holiday marking International Workers’ Day. However, it’s already proving controversial.
We may know it mainly for its demonstrations, but May 1st has a special place in the French public holiday hierarchy, so plans to change its status are big news.
Here, we explain what’s going on and why it matters.
What’s special about the May 1st public holiday?
May 1st was established as a public holiday by Article L. 3133-4 of the French Labour Code on May 1st, 1947. This article states: “May 1st is a public holiday and a day off work”.
Although France has plenty of public holidays (11 per year, or 13 for those in Alsace-Lorraine), May 1st is the only recognised public holiday in France that obliges workers – except those in essential services – to take a day off, with pay.
Naturally, essential workers like hospital staff, police and firefighters work on the day.
Those who do have to work are entitled to higher pay rates for the day – in contrast to other public holidays when workers are only entitled to a day off in lieu.
In 1986, then minister Martine Aubry signed what’s called a ministerial position stipulating that establishments that had an exemption for Sunday work could also benefit from it for May 1st. In 2006, however, the Cour de Cassation ruled that provisions for Sunday working could not be applied to May 1st.
It’s just one day a year. Is that so bad?
Small business leaders — especially those who run bakers and florists — seem to think so.
According to an OpinionWay poll, commissioned by small business lobby group the Confédération des Petites et Moyennes Entreprises (CPME) and published in La Tribune Dimanche at the weekend, just shy of 74 percent of people were in favour of “allowing employees [who volunteer] to work on May 1st in local shops, with double pay”.
By age groups that breaks down at 67.5 percent of 18-24 year olds support May 1st working; as 75.4 percent of 25-34 year olds; 75.4 percent of 35-49 year olds; and more than 73 percent of respondents over 50.
It seems that, while people like the day off, they also quite like the idea of being able to go shopping.
Meanwhile, unions which support the required closure of florists often sell the traditional May 1st flower muguet (lily of the valley) in the street on the day itself, which seems a little hypocritical.
READ ALSO Muguet: France’s lucky May flower
Why is this a problem?
This proposed law — a single article bill — which is to be discussed in public session in the Assembly on Friday, is an effort to remove an ambiguity over the legality of working on May 1st.
You may have seen some florists and bakers in France open on Labour Day. They can do this but they cannot ask employees to work on the day – so the bakery owner can work, and so can their family members if it is a family-owned business.
But they can be fined €750 per employee working if they do so. Last year, around 20 boulangeries fell foul of France’s strict May Day labour laws.
In Germany, Spain, or Portugal, however, you can pick up your daily bread or a bouquet for your dear mum as normal.
The law is intended to allow for employees who want to work to do so.
What does the text say?
It’s very carefully worded. From a legal standpoint, the bill, proposed by former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, makes a distinction between establishments whose activity cannot be interrupted for reasons of public service continuity or social necessity and businesses that are not currently eligible but would be under the new rules.
The text allows for “establishments whose primary activity is the sale of natural flowers, which meets a public need related to a traditional custom specific to May 1st” to open.
And also businesses offering products “intended for immediate consumption” or those, “whose exclusive activity is the retail sale of food products”.
Additionally the text provides for the opening of establishments that are “primarily engaged in cultural activities … whose activities meet a natural public demand on a day off”.
And it also says employees must volunteer to work on May 1st, that employers cannot force them to do so, and that the pay rate for working the day is double their usual payment.
And it directly states that any employee’s refusal to work on May 1st, “cannot be subject to discriminatory measures in the context of the performance of their employment contract”.
Okay, so let them work if they want…
Not so fast. France’s unions aren’t impressed. Most of the biggest ones in France have joined forces to call on MPs to reject the proposed law that, they say, calls “into question May 1st, a mandatory paid day off for all employees”.
May 1st remains a powerful symbol of workers’ rights and the history of social struggles, the unions say. Undermining it “would pave the way for a broader weakening of collective guarantees and the right to rest, to the detriment of workers”.
It is, according to the Union Syndicale Solidaires group of trade unions, “an international date that commemorates the struggles for workers’ rights, marked in particular by tragic events, such as the Fourmies massacre of May 1st, 1891.
“To question the principle of this day is to question more than a century of social history and collective achievements.”
In a joint statement, unions denounced the move as an “unacceptable social regression”.
Sophie Binet, General Secretary of the CGT, said: “There are 364 other days to open. On May 1st, employers can work if they wish, but for workers, it’s a public holiday.
“This is a hard-won right. It’s been in place for 80 years and it doesn’t pose any particular difficulties.”
She warned that the wording of the text isn’t as specific as it may appear: “Basically, it’s a gift for Interflora, Carrefour and Fnac: that’s the reality,” she said, stressing that “all French and European unions oppose it”.
But you said MPs are in favour?
Not all of them. Some MPs, mainly from the left of the political spectrum, have tabled some 114 amendments.
Besides those calling for the removal of the single article of the text and those seeking to increase the compensation paid to employees working on May 1st, MPs from the hard-left La France Insoumise have hit back with proposals for the establishment of a raft of new public holidays.
These would include February 4th, to commemorate the 1794 vote abolishing slavery in all French colonies; March 18th, to honour the short-lived and brutally repressed Paris Commune of 1871; July 30th as a celebration of friendship; and August 4th, to recall the 1789 vote abolishing the feudal privileges of French nobles and members of the clergy.
In a statement explaining its 33 amendments, La France Insoumise said: “France has 11 public holidays per year […] below the average of European Union countries.”
It added: “The OECD notes that a French worker works 1,491 hours per year, including public holidays and paid leave, which is more than Germans, Norwegians, Danes, Swedes, Austrians, Icelanders, Luxembourgers, and Dutch workers.”
This is France, there’ll be protests, right?
The Union Syndicale Solidaires has called for a demonstration outside the National Assembly on April 10th. Other protests are planned across the country. Expect something.
