Overview
- Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu decided Monday not to request a joint committee of lawmakers, halting the accelerated route for a bill that would have widened who can work on May 1.
- Labour Minister Jean‑Pierre Farandou met union leaders at 6 p.m. Monday and repeated that there would be no force‑through, with talks shifting to define a much narrower scope.
- A tactical rejection vote in the National Assembly on Friday had set up a Commission mixte paritaire — a 7‑deputy, 7‑senator panel that can produce a final text — without a full first reading by MPs, which unions condemned as a shortcut.
- The draft decree shown to unions listed large bakery and pastry chains, chocolatiers and ice‑cream chains, butcheries, cheese shops, fishmongers, fruit‑and‑vegetable stores including big specialized outlets, florists, garden centers, cinemas, museums, and performance venues.
- No legal change will take effect before May 1, 2027, so this year the day remains a paid public holiday with only narrow exceptions where owners work without employees, a rule that led to fines for some shops and that the government now wants to revisit through negotiation.