French LV’s Paris flagship store on the Champs Elysées opened its doors for business last Sunday, challenging the court injunction and insisting on opening on Sundays amid the financial tsunami. The company said that opening on Sunday can save the jobs of 70 employees.
In France, in order to protect workers’ right to rest, general retail stores can only open on five Sundays a year, with the exception of a few cultural, entertainment, leisure, and sports industries in tourist areas. The LV flagship store was approved by the Paris District Court to open on Sundays at the end of 2005, but it aroused opposition from several unions in the garment and accessories industries, and the lawsuit went to France’s Supreme Administrative Court. The court overturned the district court’s decision last week, ruling. LV must abide by the rules of being closed on Sundays.
A spokesman for LV parent company LVMH said that the Paris flagship store will open on Sunday, involving the departure and stay of 70 employees. On the first Sunday after the verdict was announced, the doors of the LV flagship store were still open, and customers came in to shop as usual, many of them with oriental faces.
The French are in a dilemma about the issue of LV’s Sunday opening. They believe that LV should be allowed to open on Sunday, but labor rights are equally important. They are afraid that if this is done, employees who are unwilling to work on Sunday may be fired by their employers in the future. The French economy has been hit hard since the financial tsunami, with the unemployed population reaching 2.1 million. In order to stimulate consumption, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has vigorously promoted business on Sundays.
