French legislators approve expanding Sunday work
PARIS -- French legislators have approved a divisive bill that allows more stores to stay open — and more people to work — on Sundays.
One of President Nicolas Sarkozy's key reform pledges, the bill's proponents say expanding Sunday opening hours will give the French economy a much-needed jolt as the nation wrestles with recession.
But France's leftist opposition calls it an affront to labor protections, and traditionalists decry it as an attack on the time-honored day of rest.
The law was adopted Wednesday by a vote of 282 to 238 in France's lower house of parliament.
Under the new law, shops in France's three largest metropolitan areas —Paris, Marseille and Lille — would be permitted to open on Sundays. Employees would have the choice to refuse Sunday working hours, and employers would have to pay those who agree to work double overtime. Shops in another 500 towns and villages deemed to be of "tourist interest" could also open, but without the obligation to pay employees double overtime.
The bill seeks to bring order to the tangle of loopholes that have sprung up since a 1906 law that established Sunday as a mandatory day off. The 1906 law was passed after a deadly mining accident that helped mobilize support for greater worker rights.
A minority of French stores are currently allowed to open on Sundays through a patchwork of exceptions, such as the one that allows shops in tourist zones such as Paris' Champs Elysees to open if their wares or services fit a vaguely defined category of entertainment and cultural goods. In other areas, such as the French capital's tourist-packed Marais quarter, shops selling jewelry and clothing benefit from authorities turning a blind eye.
European Union data show that France's restrictions on business activity on Sundays are similar to those in several other Western European nations, with about 15% of French people surveyed saying they usually work Sundays, compared to the EU average of around 14%.
