2023-11-24 05:12:16
The deputies are almost unanimous: meal vouchers for shopping are yes!
The National Assembly adopted, with an overwhelming majority (117 votes for, 1 once morest), the extension of the exemption allowing the use of meal vouchers for the purchase of all food products, including those not directly consumable. The vote was held on November 23, 2023. However, the deputies rejected the possibility of purchasing even non-food products with these same meal vouchers.
This measure, which concerns around 5.4 million employees in France, was initially due to end on December 31, 2023, following having been extended several times since its introduction, during the first confinement linked to Covid-19 in 2020. Intended to be temporary from the start, the measure seems to have taken too important a place in the daily lives of French employees. To the point that rumors are circulating that the system will be made permanent.
Meal vouchers: the government supports the extension of the system
Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy, declared himself in favor of the measure, as did Olivia Grégoire, Minister for SMEs and Trade. On November 14, 2023, on M6, she was the one who announced the extension, following the controversy born a few hours earlier where it seemed that 2024 was going to sign the end of the race with meal vouchers.
The 5 million employees benefiting from meal vouchers will still be able to purchase non-directly consumable products such as rice or pasta until December 31, 2024.
This is a common sense measure, useful to the French. pic.twitter.com/GeVuugmjgy
— Olivia Gregoire (@oliviagregoire) November 14, 2023
On November 23, 2023, in the National Assembly, she once once more supported the measure.
« You manage to introduce us [cette dérogation] like a gift, but meal vouchers are not a gift », criticized Sophia Chirikou, elected LFI, during the declarations of the Minister of SMEs before the deputies.
Will the sustainability of meal vouchers for races take place?
Olivia Grégoire also announced a discussion planned for the first half of 2024 with a view to a broader reform of the meal voucher system. The sustainability of the system, mentioned by the government which has however not commented on the details, seems to be gradually becoming reality.
But the government will have to deal with criticism, of which there is no shortage. Firstly, restaurateurs, who estimate that several hundred million euros per year are taken from them for the benefit of mass distribution, since employees do their shopping.
On the other hand, the issuers of the meal vouchers themselves, who are worried regarding the disappearance of meal vouchers. The latter would then become meal vouchers or shopping vouchers, radically changing the primary objective of the system, namely paying in part for employees’ midday meals.
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#races #place
