French bakeries sold crusty baguettes and flaky croissants with government backing Friday, defying labour unions arguing that May 1 should remain a sacred day of compulsory rest.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu ordered several baguettes in front of the cameras in the village of Saint-Julien-Chapteuil in central France.<\/p>\n
“Let’s have several… at least four,” he said, as he sought to promote a new bill to clearly exempt independent bread and flower shops from mandatory rest on Labour Day.<\/p>\n
Under French law, “May 1 is a public holiday and a non-working day”. Essential services — such as hospitals and hotels — can remain open must pay their staff double.<\/p>\n
But there has been confusion about whether bakeries can open.<\/p>\n
Labour inspectors on the public holiday in 2024 reported five bakers to the authorities for operating, causing them to be hauled before a court.<\/p>\n
The bakers were all acquitted last year, but their plight sparked debate across France.<\/p>\n
The government earlier this week encouraged bakers to work on May 1, saying they were “indispensable to the continuity of social life”.<\/p>\n
It also said florists should open to sell fragrant lily of the valley, which is traditionally sold on Labour Day in France.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, the cabinet put forward a bill — that has yet to go to a vote in parliament — to allow both bakeries and florists to open on the first day of May, so long as employees volunteer to work in writing and are paid double wages.<\/p>\n
But the country’s main unions argue that no employee is truly free to volunteer when they are seeking to keep a work contract.<\/p>\n
They also fear French workers will soon all be required to work on the holiday.<\/p>\n
“Social history shows us that each time a principle is undermined, exemptions gradually increase until they become the rule,” they warned in a joint statement last month.<\/p>\n
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