Senior IOC official Pierre-Olivier Beckers-Vieujant said he was "full of confidence" at the end of his final inspection of French preparations before the start of the Olympic Games on 26 July. Asked about the threat of strikes, the head of the IOC Coordination Commission for the Paris Games said: "We are not worried. There's a dialogue going on".

Unions representing public sector workers in France are pushing for bonuses and extra resources for their members who will have to work through the summer holidays during the Games. "At this stage, we're very confident that solutions will be found because there is a collective desire to make the Paris Games be the celebration they deserve," he added.

On Thursday, CGT General Secretary Sophie Binet said that the union would call strikes in April in all three public service sectors (national, local and hospital) during the Olympics and Paralympics, which run until 8 September. 

A few hours after this announcement by the main public sector union, the second largest union (Force Ouvrière) did the same, announcing a strike notice extending from 19 March, the day of the inter-union mobilisation for public sector salaries, to 8 September. 

However, the CFDT (the third largest union) and Unsa (the fourth) have indicated that they are not calling for public sector mobilisations during the Olympic and Paralympic Games at this time.

Two days after the CGT and FO called for strikes during the Olympic Games, Stanislas Guerini, the Minister of Public Services, said that he wanted this period to be "a moment of success for the nation". "The whole country wants no strikes" during the Olympics (from 26 July to 11 August), said Civil Service Minister Stanislas Guerini on Saturday. This was two days after the CGT and FO called for strikes.

"This period (the Games, ed.) must be a moment of success for the nation," the minister insisted on Franceinfo radio. "I meet a lot of civil servants, none of them have informed me of their intention to strike during the event," he assured.

Speaking on France Info on Saturday, Stanislas Guerini said that the unions' claim that there was no dialogue with the government on preparations for the Olympics was "very inaccurate". He pointed out that a meeting between the government and the trade unions was scheduled for Tuesday.

He also confirmed that civil servants who are mobilised during the Olympic Games will receive bonuses of €500, €1,000 or even €1,500, depending on their level of commitment and the impact of the event on their profession. 

Guerini added that a "special additional system" was being planned "for the security forces, which will be particularly mobilised". This comes just a few weeks after the government announced bonuses of up to €1,900 for certain police officers and gendarmes.

He also announced that 10,000 universal employment vouchers (Cesu) would be paid to civil servants mobilised during the Olympic Games. The vouchers would be worth up to 200 euros per child in general and 350 euros per child for single-parent families. "We will set up day-care centres and reserve 1,000 places in holiday centres to help families sending their children to camps," Guerini added.