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FRANCE LABOUR REFORMS

LABOUR REFORMS

French government agrees to meet student union leaders

The French PM Manuel Valls has agreed to meet with student union leaders in a bid to quell growing anger over the government's planned labour reforms.

Published: 10 March 2016 13:35 CET
French government agrees to meet student union leaders
Photo: AFP

The French government will meet student and high school unions in a bid to respond to fierce opposition to proposed labour law reforms, Education Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem said Thursday.

Young people were ar the forefront of the demonstrations against the draft law that were held across France on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls “will meet the youth organizations very soon, to continue the dialogue with them”, Vallaud-Belkacem told France 2 TV.

The reform, aimed at boosting hiring, would remove some of the obstacles to laying off workers, but opponents fear it will erode the cast-iron job security that French workers on full-time contracts enjoy.

Vallaud-Belkacem said the demonstrations that unions claimed brought up to half a million people onto the streets – the police said it was half that number – boasted “a serious turnout”.

Myriam El Khomri, the labour minister who drew up the contested reforms, also said “the criticisms must be heard”.

The main student union, Unef, has called for a follow-up demonstration on March 17th.

The reforms have divided the Socialist government, pitting President Francois Hollande and Valls against a range of left-wing forces 14 months before the president faces a re-election bid.

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CGT

French trade union chief slams UK and US over lack of workers’ rights

France does not want to treat its workers like the UK and US, with zero hours contracts and no protection for the unemployed, Philippe Martinez, the head of the hardline CGT, France's biggest trade union, has said.

Published: 12 January 2018 16:54 CET
French trade union chief slams UK and US over lack of workers' rights
Photo: AFP
Last year Martinez and his leftist union fought an unsuccessful battle with President Emmanuel Macron over a raft of reforms aimed at freeing up France's rigid jobs market.
 
Those controversial reforms cut into the power of France's trade unions and made it easier for firms to lay off staff.
 
Martinez believes Macron is influenced by the “Anglo-Saxon” model but he does not want to see the same situation in France. 

 
“Anglo-Saxon countries like the UK and US are Macron's model…his inspiration,” Martinez told a gathering of journalists from the Anglo American Press Association including The Local. 

“I saw an excellent Ken Loach film recently, 'I, Daniel Blake'. And if you think that is an example of a modern society…well,” he shrugged. 
 
“We don't want to have zero-hours contracts and no rights for the unemployed,” he said.
 
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French labour reforms: What's actually going to change for workers in France

Photo: AFP

 
Controversial zero-hour contracts stipulate that the employer is not obliged to provide any minimum working hours while the worker is not obliged to accept any work offered.
 
“Macron is trying to conduct politics away from the unions,” Martinez said. “Political parties have never been as distant from the world of workers as they are now.”
 

Martinez also had a dig at China, saying: “We don't want to be like China where children are working in factories”. 
 
He went on to question why Macron hadn't brought up this, and other human rights' issues, on his recent trip there, instead of just “giving them a horse.”
 
The formidable union leader has been at the helm of the far-left (once Communist) CGT since 2015. 
 
And since then he has done his best to act as the thorn in the side of the French presidency. 
 
However, in 2017 the once hugely powerful CGT failed to stop the reform of France's enshrined labour code, as President Emmanuel Macron swept to power and started carrying out the dramatic changes to workers' rights that he had promised.
 
These included giving small companies in particular more freedom to negotiate working conditions with their employees, rather than being bound by industry-wide collective agreements negotiated by trade unions. 
 
In 2016 when socialist president Francois Hollande was attempting to reform France's labour code, changes were ditched due to pressure from the unions as demonstrations caused disruption across the country.