The Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau spoke on Sunday of the idea of minimum service in order to limit the impact on travelers of strikes like that of SNCF controllers this weekend. “It seems to me that we need to work on a minimum service,” said Mr. Fesneau, guest on the program “Political Questions” on France Inter. “I would rather go for that, even if I am not a specialist on the issue,” he added.
According to him, a minimum service would make it possible to avoid “inflicting, even if there is conflict, a certain number of constraints on our fellow citizens, whether they are on vacation or working, in periods which are sometimes crucial periods.
Marc Fesneau estimated that it would “undoubtedly” be necessary to legislate on the minimum service, while recalling that “there is no question of calling into question” the strike as a constitutional right. “There will be parliamentary debates, we will see how all this can be organized. There are texts, legislative proposals which seem to have been in bloom for a week,” according to the minister.
Several parliamentary proposals have attempted, in recent years, to toughen the 2007 law on minimum service in transport, particularly after the 2022 Christmas weekend episode which left 200,000 travelers in the lurch. But none prospered.
A text from the senatorial right prohibiting notices around public holidays and on “the first two and last two days” of school holidays is already in the pipeline.
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal deplored on Wednesday “a form of habit” each holiday period “to have the announcement of a strike” by railway workers. “The French know that striking is a right,” but “also that working is a duty,” he said. He encouraged Parliament to take up this debate.
The president of the Macronist senators François Patriat admitted that he would think about “all the developments” which would make it possible to regulate “these untimely strikes”.
