French baker fined for ‘working too hard’

PARIS: A French baker was fined for working ‘round the clock to keep his bakery open seven days’ in violation of labour rules.

In France, everyone is required to take a day off per week. Even if you run your own business. That lesson was learned the hard way by Cedric Vaivre, who owns a bakery in the tourist region of Lake Bakey in Lusigny-sur-Barse, which is about 120 miles south-east of Paris.

Cédric Vaivre, 41, has been slapped with a €3000 ($4736) fine after his bakery in Lusigny-sur-Barse in northeast France, was left open every day during the summer of 2017 to meet the demand of eager tourists, the BBC reported.

Mr Vaivre’s bakery Boulangerie du Lac, the only one in the village, breached a local decree since 1994 that bans bakeries from opening all week long, local newspaper L’Est Eclair reported.

Mr Vaivre, who said he only opens seven days a week during the summer, was given an exemption to the law in 2016 but the arrangement was not renewed last year.

The baker is reportedly refusing to pay the fine and has support from the 2000-strong community via a petition, and from Lusigny-sur-Barse’s mayor.

“There is nothing worse than closed shops when there are tourists,” said mayor Christian Branle.

“I only did my job,” he said in December after the bakery had come to the attention of labour inspectors.