A few days before 1er-Mai, emblematic day of workers’ rights, centrist senators supported by the government want to soften the rules framing work on this unemployed day, in particular for bakers and florists.
“There are 364 other days to open. I remind you that the 1er May, the bosses can work if they wish, but for workers, it is a holiday, it is unemployed, it is a conquered of the struggle ”castigated the secretary general of the CGT, Sophie Binet, questioned on LCI Sunday April 27.
“We know how to survive one day without having your bread wand and it is very important that this day remains a holiday and unemployed”she continued. “It was acquired in the blood and in the tears of the workers”she added, saying to fear that this relaxation of work rules on 1er May does not lead to the same process that made it possible to “Completely liberalizing Sunday work”.
The centrist senators have just tabled a bill to allow establishments already authorized to open Sunday to be able to do so on 1er May, notably targeting bakers and florists.
Obsolete
This initiative intends to respond to the controversy of the past few days around bakers, some of which had undergone unexpected labor inspection in this traditional holiday inspection last year.
The bill, carried by the senator from Vendée Annick Billon, and the president of the Union Centrist group, Hervé Marseille, wants to adapt “The right to realities on the ground”according to the text consulted by the agency France-Presse (AFP), by modifying the labor code.
If the text is adopted will be able to work on employees of establishments and services “Whose operation or opening is made necessary by the constraints of production, activity or public needs”. The list of categories concerned, which is the same as that allowing certain companies to open on Sunday, would be set by decree.
There are therefore bakers, the collective agreement of which already already authorized the opening on 1er May, but in a certain legal vagueness. The possibility for these companies to make employees work that day has been based so far on a ministerial position of May 23, 1986, but this derogation has become obsolete after a decision of the Court of Cassation in 2006.
“It is in no way a question of calling into question the public holiday and unemployed of this day, but of recognizing the specificity of certain activities – like bakeries or florists – who fully participate in our daily life and our cultural heritage”stressed the authors of the bill, who hope to register it on the agenda of the Senate “Before the end of June”.
Respect for volunteer
The Minister of Labor, Health, Solidarity and Families, Catherine Vautrin, told AFP that “The government will support this initiative, because it comes to secure our law and meet the expectations of bakers, but also of all those whose activity is essential”,, “In absolute respect for volunteering” employees. “This text is not limited to bakers: it will bring clarity and legal certainty for all the professions concerned”she insisted.
With this text, “We should be able to clarify (…). A baker cannot open ” by taking the risk of “Take 5,000, 10,000 euros of PV”commented to AFP Dominique Anract, president of the National Confederation of Bakery-Pâtisserie, in reference to the labor inspectorate controls.
“Many employees” agree to work on 1er May, because this day is paid double, further advances the representative of the profession, who takes care to add that it must above all be an approach ” voluntary “. He also highlights that the 1er may “Is an interesting day” In terms of turnover, especially in tourist areas.
Asked about France 3, the deputy for the National Rally Julien Odoul supported the bill: “We need to free up work. (…) The 1er-Mai, it is the feast of labor, it is not the feast of idleness, it is not the party of assistantship, notwithstanding the CGT which wants to send us back to the XIXe century. »»