French wands deprived on May 1? While the question had never really been really posed, a rain of verbalizations in 2024 changed the situation. A fifteen days from the Labor Day, will France be deprived of one of its most anchored traditions?
What does the law say?
Among the legal festivals, only May 1 is necessarily unemployed for all employees (all companies and categories combined). Bakers, whose profession is not considered essential, are therefore no exception to the rule. The only employees who can work on May 1 are those employed in a company which, “due to the nature of the activity, cannot interrupt the work”, specifies the articles L3133-4 to L3133-6 of the Labor Code. This is the case, for example, in hospitals, the written press (since the newspaper appeared on May 2; in this case, April 30 is unemployed) or even public transport. In theory, because very little of these operate on the day of the Labor Day.
In bakery-pastry companies, the possibility of employing employees on May 1 has long rested on a ministerial position of May 23, 1986. But this derogation became obsolete after a decision of the Court of Cassation in 2006.
Why has the subject become hot this year?
For years, many bakeries have opened on May 1, without this posing the slightest problem, or episodically. “Until last year, no one asked himself. We had always worked, people are paid double, everyone was happy, and customers consume that day, “explains Dominique Anract, president of the National Confederation of Bakery. Except that in 2024, five bakeries of Vendée were verbalized. “Labor inspectors refer to the May 1 labor law, and this is a question of interpretation because we have no legal derogation,” says Dominique Anract.
However, according to the National Confederation of Bakery, the law remains very vague. What about a bakery that delivers hospitals, penitentiary establishments or nursing homes and could be considered as exercising an activity that does not allow you to interrupt its work on May 1? It could be the same if there is only one bakery-pastry in a town.
So, will France be deprived of baguette on May 1?
“I cannot imagine that we have to close 34,000 bakeries in France, the land of bread!” “Says Dominique Anract.
Asked about this subject, the Minister of Labor, Catherine Vautrin, replied that a baker, who is an entrepreneur, is authorized to work on May 1, but not his employees. The fine incurred is 750 euros per employee concerned, 1,500 euros when he is a minor, she said. But she also said she was ready to support a change in the law. “Bread is a French tradition,” she added. “I am committed to supporting parliamentary initiatives that will change the law and allow employees of bakeries to work on May 1 if they wish. »»
She is not the only one in the government to campaign for an opening on May 1. “The application of this law is now difficult to understand,” admits Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet, Minister responsible for Labor and Employment. “If, on a voluntary basis with salary supplements, people want to organize themselves, we must be able to (do) before being able to clarify things in law”.
Our file on May 1st
Marine Le Pen brought her “support” to “bakers who wish to open their business on May 1, with obviously voluntary employees”. “Let those who want to work freely,” adds the former trade minister Olivia Grégoire, deputy EPR. David Lisnard, boss of the Association of Mayors of France (and mayor of Cannes), sees it as a question of “freedom”.
