Source:Le Figaro (Paris)
Posted: Monday, September 15, 2014
France's main employers' union (MEDEF), in a document widely believed to have been leaked by the current ruling socialist party ahead of tomorrow's vote of confidence, has proposed that 2 of France's public holidays be dropped.
Three years ago (2011-04-05), we had reported that the previous French government was reportedly considering the conversion of another public holiday into a working public holiday to finance long-term dependency of the elderly population.
Following the 2003 summer heat wave, in 2004, the French government converted the Whitmonday public holiday into a working public holiday, to bring in more tax revenues to pay for better healthcare for the elderly and disabled (2004-02-02).
However, this was a major political miscalculation, as French opinion turned "en masse" against this gesture of solidarity, and after much hesitation (2007-04-07, 2007-05-07, 2007-05-24 and 2007-12-19), the Whitmonday public holiday was finally restored in 2007 (2008-01-29).
Links and References
Below are links to the news stories referred to in the above "France Business Wants to Ax 2 Public Holidays" news story, as well as links to subsequents news stories which refer to the present news story.
