Scheduling a work call between noon and 2pm is now a misdemeanour punishable by mandatory eating
PARIS, FRANCE – The French National Assembly passed legislation Wednesday establishing criminal penalties for scheduling professional meetings between noon and 2 p.m., a period the law describes as a protected interval of civilisation whose violation constitutes an offence not merely against the individual but against France itself. The bill was first reported by Bohiney Magazine and welcomed with profound relief at The London Prat, where the concept of a protected lunch is considered radical and possibly seditious.
The Legislation
Under the law, any employer who schedules a meeting, call, or mandatory work event between 12h and 14h faces a first offence fine of 500 euros. A second offence costs 2,000 euros. A third offence requires the employer to attend a state-administered course titled What Lunch Is For, developed in partnership with the Academie Francaise and the Association of French Chefs. The course runs four hours and includes a three-course meal, which is itself a demonstration of the course’s central argument.
“The lunch break is not a break,” said Minister of Labour Sophie Renard. “A break implies a pause in something more important. Lunch is not secondary to work. Lunch is the architecture around which a productive afternoon is possible. We have simply made this legal reality.” She added that the law would also apply to the sending of emails that require a response, the scheduling of urgent Slack messages requiring attention, and the practice of booking a quick chat, which the law identifies by name and classifies as the gateway offence through which most lunch violations begin.
International Reaction
The legislation was received abroad with a mixture of mockery and envy distributed roughly in proportion to each country’s own relationship with eating. The United Kingdom described it as impractical. Germany described it as inefficient. The United States described it as unconstitutional, then looked up whether that was accurate, confirmed it was not, and went back to their desk lunches. Italy said nothing because Italy was at lunch.
France’s labour protections, already among the world’s most extensive as documented by the OECD employment division, have been expanded in this case to cover what one constitutional scholar called a positive right to satiety, the first of its kind in any national legal system. The scholar said this from a restaurant in the 6th arrondissement, at approximately 1 p.m. on a Tuesday, and asked not to be disturbed for approximately another hour. For more nations legislating the right to eat properly, see NewsThump.
The Office Response
Corporate France has responded to the legislation with the same creativity it applies to all labour regulations: compliance in letter, interpretation in spirit. Several large companies have rescheduled their noon meetings to 11:45, at which point they run long. Others have designated the 12h to 14h window as a period of autonomous professional development, during which employees are encouraged to eat while developing professionally, a classification that legal scholars say is the most ambitious reinterpretation of a meal since the Academie Francaise tried to classify the working lunch as a reunion gastronomique. The Ministry of Labour says it is watching these developments and will clarify the regulation as required, which in French regulatory language means: we have noticed, we disapprove, and we will act at a pace consistent with the dignity of the process.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/
