Macronist deputies adopted a motion to reject their own text which sought to allow certain professions to work on May 1. The method aims to circumvent the multiple amendments tabled by the left and above all to be able to apply this proposed law from May 1st.
A mess of amendments, songs and a game of four-cushion billiards this Friday, April 10 in the hemicycle. The president of the Renaissance group Gabriel Attal may well himself defend a proposed law which aims to allow several professional sectors to open their businesses on May 1, contrary to what the law currently provides, it is indeed his own troops who have tabled a motion of rejection prior to the debates.
Stated objective: to bypass the left, fiercely opposed to this text, and hope for its very rapid application in around twenty days.
A motion to reject to speed up the debates
We rewind: the motion to reject was adopted with 120 votes for, votes corresponding to the LR, RN, Horizons and Macronist deputies present in the hemicycle and 150 against (ecologists, socialists, rebels, communists, Modem).
The method, counterintuitive on paper, nevertheless makes it possible to cut short all exchanges in the hemicycle and send the text directly to the joint parliamentary committee. It must be said that the bill, passed on first reading in the Senate last April, deeply divides the Assembly and had little chance of being adopted this Friday.
“Certain political groups have chosen parliamentary obstruction, making it impossible to examine this text within a reasonable time,” lamented MP Nicole Dubré-Chirat, head of the text for Renaissance, from the podium.
“Stroke of force”
The entire left had tabled 250 amendments to counter this bill which it considers “dangerous” to use the words of the deputy of the environmental group Clémentine Autain.
“You want to carry out a coup, when what is at stake is the fate of 1.5 million employees, mainly poorly paid women,” launched the former rebel in the chamber.
This bill opens the possibility, to employees in the bakery and florist sectors, but also to establishments selling retail food products such as mini-markets and to establishments carrying out a cultural activity, to work on May 1, on a “voluntary” basis – a notion which does not exist in the Labor Code – and with a salary increase which should be double a standard working day as already provided for in the Labor Code.
The debate on the advisability of expanding the possibilities of working on this day was relaunched last year after bakers in Vendée, Charente and Paris were outraged by unannounced checks followed by fines for having makes employees work on May 1st.
Des exceptions très précises
The Labor Code is currently very clear: it establishes that this day is “holiday and non-working”. Despite this rule, it is still possible for an artisan baker or florist to open on that day, under certain conditions. Only the trader himself can work, or possibly members of his family who are not employees. However, no employee can be mobilized on that day. Failing this, he is exposed to a fine of 750 to 1,500 euros per employee concerned.
As an exception, the employee can work on May 1 when he is employed in a sector which, due to the nature of the activity, cannot interrupt work such as hospitals, transport or waste collection.
To change the rule by May 1, in a handful of days, Gabriel Attal has therefore chosen to move quickly. The motion for prior rejection will therefore make it possible to directly convene a joint committee, this body which brings together senators and deputies with the aim of finding a common version of this bill. However, obtaining a majority in favor of the text is extremely likely at the end of this commission dominated by the right and the center.
This joint committee on the text will take place on Tuesday April 14 at 4:30 p.m., BFMTV learned from a government source.
A very tight schedule
The Renaissance group is convinced, it is possible to find an agreement at this time, next week. However, this bill remains to be adopted at second reading in the Assembly. Will MPs say yes in the end? In the Renaissance camp, we believe in it while recognizing that the timetable is not obvious.
“We are very limited by time. We have around ten days to get there,” recognizes Macronist MP Nicole Dubré-Chirat, contacted by BFM.
In the meantime, the left was keen to show its opposition to the tactical rejection motion tabled by the Macronists. The Marseillaise was sung on the left aisles under the astonished gaze of part of the hemicycle. The president of the LR deputies Laurent Wauquiez for his part accused LFI of “installing chaos in this hemicycle with each text, accusing them of “increasingly lamentable behavior”.
A method already proven for the Duplomb law
All the presidents of the left-wing groups expressed their anger at the method chosen by the Renaissance group. “Once again, we see a delaying tactic which consists of bypassing the National Assembly,” said the president of the socialist deputies Boris Vallaud. Same story for his counterpart of the environmentalist deputies Cyrielle Chatelain who denounced her next to a “49.3 Macronist”.
The method is not new, however. Last May, the defenders of the bill aimed at lifting the constraints on the exercise of the profession of farmer, more simply called the Duplomb law, had adopted exactly the same strategy. A motion for prior rejection had been presented by the right and adopted, before that a joint joint committee and then a vote ultimately made it possible to adopt the text.
“Exactly the same thing will happen as what happened for Sunday work,” pointed out CGT general secretary Sophie Binet this Friday morning on RMC.
Because we “start by saying, don’t worry, it’s going to be voluntary with increases for those who will work on May 1st”, she explains. “And today, we are looking at what is happening to Sunday work. There is no voluntary work, no increase,” the general secretary of the CGT once again lambasted.
Present during the debates before the Assembly, Sophie Binet regretted in the wake of the vote of the motion to reject “a stab in the back of millions of workers”.
