Leaders of one of France’s most powerful unions have filed a strike notice allowing them to call for industrial action among public sector workers during the Olympic Games. The move on Wednesday came after the hardline CGT union, which represents the largest number of state employees – including hospital staff – rejected suggestions of an Olympic “truce”. It follows a strike notice filed by the Force Ouvrière union, the second largest in the public sector, last month. The notices allow strikes to be called during the five-month period between 15 April and 15 September, covering both the Olympic and Paralympic Games, though no specific industrial action has been declared and the government is hoping to avoid any. “The advance notice covers all employees in the health sector, local authorities and the state”, the CGT union’s confederal secretary, Céline Verzeletti, told BFMTV. She said the strike notice covered around 5.7 million public workers. The union, which had already announced its intention to call a strike during the Olympic Games, called in a press release for “permanent recruitment, compensation for the professional constraints generated by the Games … holiday rights, the right to choose to work from home and the right to switch off” from work. Two other unions have said they currently have no plans to call for industrial action during the Olympics. The authorities have banned many state employees, thousands of whom will be required to work extra hours at weekends and evenings, from taking holidays during the Games. French officials have been scrambling in recent weeks to agree pay deals with key workers to avoid industrial action. Union leaders, aware of the damage they can do to the country’s reputation, have been flexing their muscles with threats of disruption. “For an exceptional event, exceptional measures,” the police union Alliance wrote in a statement explaining its demand for a bonus of up to €2,000 (£1,700) for their members in compensation for lost holidays and extra work over the summer Games. The government has promised to pay officers an extra €1,900 each. “The Olympics are a double edged sword for the image of a country,” Philippe Moreau Chevrolet, a public relations expert, told AFP when unions issued the first strike warnings in January. The upper house of parliament, the Sénat, voted on Tuesday to limit rail workers right to strike during holiday periods. The measure is unlikely to succeed in the National Assembly. The Olympic Games will run from 26 July to 11 August and the Paralympic Games from 28 August to 8 September.