The Senate adopted on Tuesday June 16 the bill aimed at allowing artisanal bakers and florists to have their employees work on May 1, a government initiative which has revived divisions, a few weeks after a Labor Day already very politically marked.
The only public holiday, non-working and paid on the calendar, May 1st never ceases to give rise to debate about national representation.
Six weeks ago, in the middle of International Workers’ Day, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu and Renaissance boss Gabriel Attal, future presidential candidate, were already appearing separately in a bakery to defend “freedom to work”.
On Tuesday, it was the Minister of Labor Jean-Pierre Farandou who took control, defending before the senators a bill to “clarify” the legal framework for the work of employees of bakers and florists on May 1. Unsurprisingly given its majority acquired by the right and the centrists, the Senate adopted it by 229 votes to 110, without modification. The entire left, which relayed the position of hostile unions, voted against.
This initiative is in reality the second of its kind in a few months: under pressure in the face of the revolt, the government had to resolve in mid-April to stop the examination in Parliament of a previous similar bill, but with a broader scope.
After having dialogued with the sectors, the executive returns to Parliament with a proposal that it considers more balanced and respectful of social dialogue.
In a few lines, the text provides that artisan bakers, pastry chefs and florists can have their employees work on that day, provided that a sector agreement sets the conditions for collecting their volunteering and their remuneration.
It is “a solid solution on a legal level, intelligent on a practical level and respectful of our social history”, argued Jean-Pierre Farandou, assuring that the need for a sector agreement would “strengthen the power of the unions”.
An open “breach”?
The executive sees this text as a “clarification” law. Indeed, the Labor Code provides that establishments which cannot interrupt their activities can make their employees work, paying them double, but without specifying the professions concerned, leaving room for interpretation. A form of tolerance has long prevailed for bakers and florists, but certain controls of bakers since 2023, followed by fines, have put the subject back on the table.
It is precisely this vagueness that the text of the law intends to remedy. “It’s a first step,” recognizes the rapporteur of the text in the Senate, Olivier Henno (UDI), not without regretting that it is only limited to bakers and florists.
“My personal conviction is that it should have been extended to all food professions and cultural businesses – cinemas and theaters,” he adds, regretting that the debates have “flown into political postures.”
Certain other professions, such as butchery and fishmongers, have in fact deplored a “clear breach of equality”.
In a joint press release, the socialist, communist and environmentalist groups in the Senate feared the opening of a “breach in labor law”, expressing alarm against the “calling into question of a historic social conquest”.
“It is in no way a question of suppressing a right or tearing down a totem. It is about creating a right for those who, voluntarily, wish to work,” insisted Les Républicains senator Olivier Paccaud.
The number one of the CGT, Sophie Binet, denounced the government’s “small political calculations”, castigating a bill which according to her would benefit not small artisans, but “large retailers, Interflora, Marie Blachère, Eric Kayser, Paul, all the big chains which are today in the process of vampirizing crafts”. She was speaking at a union gathering near the Senate.
The text is now transmitted to the National Assembly, where its examination promises to be more eventful. It will not take place before September. The objective is to achieve final adoption before May 1, 2027.
