“We no longer understand anything”: in Chartres, traders open on May 1st are still afraid of fines

For Antoine Bréthereau, restaurant manager facing Chartres Cathedral, opening on Labor Day is a “duty”… even if it means receiving a visit from inspectors! “In the restaurateurs’ agreement, we have the right to work! “, proclaims the owner, with his wife, of Café Bleu, Cobalt and, more recently, Molière.

If by virtue of sector agreements, resulting from social dialogue, the opening of hotel and catering establishments is permitted, on the basis of staff volunteering and with increased remuneration, in reality, everything is not so clear.

“We have been in the restaurant business for 20 years, we have always tolerated working on May 1st and we never had any control until last year. An inspector came with his own interpretation of the exemption and threatened us with a fine of 750 euros per employee present,” says Antoine Bréthereau. “For him,” remembers the boss, “I had the authorization to open as a business manager but alone… without the help of my employees. »

Antoine Bréthereau nevertheless claims to have respected the rules: “It’s a double paid day for our employees with, as a bonus, a day of catching up. We don’t force anyone and 100% of our staff want to work that day! We want to be checked on the fact that our employees have volunteered and are all declared, show their pay slip and their additional CP contribution, we find that logical and important. But there, they came to prevent us from working and remind us of the law, with a procedure in progress. »

The case of Antoine Bréthereau is not isolated and although the Senate website indicates that “catering establishments of all kinds, due to their activity, participate in the continuity of social life by contributing to the satisfaction of an essential need of the public”, the controls are clearly continuing at the goodwill of labor inspectors as long as the National Assembly does not establish in black and white the professions concerned by the exemption.

“It’s nothing new, we’ve always been open! »

“We don’t understand anything anymore,” florist Matthieu Hervot admits. His Chrysalide boutique will be open this May 1 “like every year with its voluntary and double-paid employees” and he does not see why “we are making so much noise on the subject when our convention has always authorized us to open even if the government has presented this as a novelty”. Between favorable provisions of collective agreements and the inspections which are flourishing, small traders no longer know which foot to dance on.

“We always opened without problems and, suddenly, there was a wave of checks with inspectors reading the law each in their own way,” says the manager of the Marlène bakery, located on Place des Halles. We will not play the game this time, even if the government has authorized it. We would like to be of service to people but it is not profitable with the risk of fines! »

President of the bakers of Eure-et-Loir, the latter ensures that colleagues have already been informed of upcoming checks. “It’s an informal threat, we would like to be free to work or not,” she recalls. Antoine Bréthereau, for his part, does not intend to give up: “There are tourists on May 1st, without forgetting the Chartrains… It is a day which must remain family-friendly, where we must be able to have fun and eat. It is our duty to open even if we will certainly be controlled and we will certainly be subject to a repeat procedure. »

The traders are taking advantage of the support of the new mayor of Chartres Ladislas Vergne, also president of the agglomeration: “We have total support from the City, the mayor sent a letter to the Prime Minister in order to reason about the controls,” they assure. If some will open this May 1, exposing themselves to potential sanctions, others prefer to celebrate this social achievement and stay quietly at home: “We fought to have these days, without that, people never rest,” confides an employee of La Mie Câline.