Protesters set ablaze a paper statue of French President Emmanuel Macron at the end of public service demonstration on Tuesday (May 22) in Paris.
Seventeen people were arrested and two shop windows were shattered in Paris, and the union-led movement reached 140 cities around the country.
France's labour unions, galled by years of public sector pay curbs and President Emmanuel Macron's economic reforms, had urged civil servants, hospital staff and other state employees to walk out of their jobs and join nationwide protests.
One catalyst for their anger is a proposal to end certain sick leave perks and cut 120,000 government administration posts. Also on the cards is an increased recourse to contract hiring rather than the job-for-life recruitment that is standard in the civil service.
In France, about 5.7 million people work in government administration, state agencies, schools and hospitals.
