“We don’t understand anything,” “We end up mixing everything,” “Let’s take a closer look at all this.” The parties to the case pressed “Sunday work,” because it is so complicated, are launching into a true antiphony. On September 26, the Castorama and Leroy-Merlin DIY stores were compelled to close 15 stores in the Paris area, which set off the powderkeg, for two topics: competition and social law. Indeed, all the possible – impenetrable – derogations to the no-work-on-Sunday rule are confusing, making small written adjustments easy. First, on the first topic, the two companies were sued by another firm in the sector, Bricorama, which had to close on Sunday after the FO union filed a complaint. The CEO felt prejudiced by this sentence when his two rivals remained open on Sunday, in the same customer catchment areas, even though it was completely illegal.
France: unions and employers denounce the legislative imbroglio on work on Sunday but with different ideas of how to get out of it
Employers, unions, politicians, Ministers… everyone agrees that the French rule of Sunday rest with a lot of exceptions is no longer viable. Since two major home improvement stores (Castorama and Leroy-Merlin) had to close, in the Paris area, stores “illegally” opened on Sunday, observers and stakeholders in this thorny issue point to the inconsistencies and weaknesses of the Labor Code, which contains over 180 exceptions to the no-work-on-Sunday rule. Hence the trial of strength between the justice system and the retailers, who are standing firm on their grounds and opening in spite of the ban, and the dialogue assignment the government gave Jean-Paul Bailly, former CEO of the Post, in charge of shedding light over “the stakes of opening certain stores.” Conclusions at the end of November. (Ref. 130601)
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