Budget: Monetization of the fifth week of paid leave fuels union anger

Prime Minister François Bayrou and Minister of Labor and Employment Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet during the presentation of the guidelines adopted to curb the public deficit for the 2026 budget, in Paris, July 15, 2025. JULIEN MUGUET FOR "LE MONDE"

The great social advances of the Mitterrand era cannot be touched with impunity. The government has just been roundly reprimanded for having raised the possibility of "monetizing" the fifth week of paid leave introduced in 1982, at a time when the left wanted to "change life." Presented on Tuesday, July 15, as part of the budget guidelines for 2026, this avenue has inspired sharp criticism from the unions. "It's part of the museum of horrors," Marylise Léon, the general secretary of the CFDT, lambasted on France Inter on Thursday, in an unusually virulent tone for the CEDET leader.

The idea behind the controversy has a dual objective: to encourage employees to increase their working hours while also improving their pay. Individuals would thus be given the option to work more by giving up one or more days off, in exchange for an increase in their pay and subject to the employer's consent. A similar mechanism already exists—the buyback of vacation time linked to the introduction of the 35-hour week. Its impact appears to be poorly understood at this stage.

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