Two public holidays removed, probably three for some: Bayrou, between frontal attack and culpable omissions
There are some truths that the government likes to distort. First, the fable that the French work 100 hours less than the Germans. A lie contradicted by the OECD, which, in a study comparing working people on both sides of the Rhine in 2023, revealed that Germans worked an average of 1,335 hours, or 154 hours less than in mainland France (1,489 hours).
And then there are the comparisons the government is careful not to make. In this case, by announcing the abolition of two public holidays, Easter Monday and May 8, François Bayrou omitted a fact: with 11 public holidays in a calendar year, France is below the European average of 11.7 according to EURES (European Employment Services).
In this area, within the European Union, the gap varies between 9 and 15. France is behind countries such as Cyprus (15), Spain (14), or Portugal (13). And on par with Italy and Greece.
On the other hand, the comparison with Germany favors France. Workers across the Rhine only benefit from nine public holidays. This difference is due to the fact that our neighbors do not commemorate the armistice of November 11, 1918, for the Great War, nor the end of the Second World War on May 8, 1945.
Regarding the announced suppression of this last day, synonymous with the surrender of Nazi Germany, the PCF denounced it as an "infamy" and launched a petition " Don't touch May 8th! "
If the executive persists in this frontal attack on workers' rights and their private lives, the French will then have to work two more days a year, without receiving a single extra cent.
"It's a triple whammy," says Sophie Binet, general secretary of the CGT. "We're going to work more to earn less and see our social rights taken away ." The measure is expected to raise 4.2 billion, according to Matignon's calculations.
It's worth remembering that this isn't the first time the government has tried to address public holidays. It supported a centrist bill passed by the Senate on July 3, which aims to allow local and cultural businesses to open on May 1 .
International Workers' Day is the only public holiday and non-working day provided for in the French Labor Code. If this text is adopted in the fall by the Assembly, 1.5 million employees could be forced by their employers to give up a day off , in addition to the two public holidays that the executive intends to abolish.
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