Holiday confusion over June day off

A CHANGE in the law has transformed the Pentecost public holiday into a confusing situation where government officies close but many private companies remain open.

June 1 was once a holiday, then a working day and is now stuck somewhere in between.

In 2004 France instituted the journée de solidarité after the previous year’s heatwave that killed 15,000 people.

The Monday after Pentacost, traditionally a holiday, became a day where people worked and their business donates a day’s pay to the aged or handicapped.

Since 2004 it has raised €11billion.

However, after a change in the law, companies have been allowed to decide for themselves how to play it: whether to work, or take the day off and donate a day’s holiday pay, or to carry out their own journée de solidarité on another bank holiday.