This year, for the first time, the French government is allowing bakeries and florists to let their staff work on 1 May, provided they do so voluntarily and are paid double their usual rate. While employers, particularly butchers and fishmongers, are pushing for labour legislation to be further relaxed, trade unions are up in arms.
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Defend this celebration of social achievements
Sandrine Foulon, editor-in-chief of the online edition of Alternatives Economiques, warns:
“Setting the wheels in motion means collectively accepting that working on this day will become the norm and will eventually be extended to all sectors. It means that employees’ voluntary decisions will no longer always be taken into account and that atypical working hours will become standard – almost half of all employees already sometimes work evenings and on Saturdays and Sundays. In an increasingly fragmented society, 1 May holds a special place. It continues to symbolise labour as a shared celebration and commemorates numerous hard-won social achievements. We must not destroy this symbol.”
Behind the times
France is not moving with the times, criticises Les Echos:
“While last week the debate raged over the legitimacy of florists working on 1 May, we learned that AI could even pose a risk to the operational security of many companies. … In this context, France’s obsession with the ban on working on 1 May, or even with preserving the 35-hour week, at best seems out of place. This distracts from the real issues and, above all, highlights the growing divide between a France that vehemently defends social achievements from a time when different economic rules applied and a world that couldn’t care less about such things.”