French business leaders applaud Macron’s overhaul of labour codes

PARIS: French business leaders have applauded President Emmanuel Macron’s overhaul of the labour code, a signature reform that will test his ability to force through change and face down protests.

The 39-year- old centrist sees overhauling France’s rigid labour regulations as key to tackling the unemployment rate, currently 9.5 per cent in France, roughly twice the level of Britain or Germany.

The head of the employers federation Pierre Gattaz on Thursday welcomed the reform as “an important first step in the building of labour laws that are in step with the daily reality inside our companies”.

The measures unveiled Thursday are aimed in particular at helping small businesses by allowing bosses to negotiate contract terms and conditions directly with their employees without union involvement.

They also cap the sometimes prohibitivecostsoffiringemployees by limiting court awards for unfair dismissals and make it easier for multinationals operating in France to lay off workers.

Presenting the changes, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe called them “ambitious, balanced and fair” and said they would help France “make up for lost years” of mass unemployment.

“There are differences. We accept them,” Philippe said at the end of three months of talks with trade unions and business leaders, which ended with the latter group sounding the happiest.

The CPME small business group expressed satisfaction with the plan, while unions gave it a mixed reception.

The moderate CFDT union said it was “disappointed” by some of the proposals, as did the hard-left Force Ouvriere (FO) union.

But crucially from Macron’s perspective, neither said they would recommend their members join planned street protests next month by the Communist-backed CGT, France’s biggest union.

The reform is a pivotal part of Macron’s domestic agenda and the first step of a planned overhaul of France’s social system, which is set to include other changes to unemployment benefits and pensions.

The former economy minister campaigned on a promise to encourage entrepreneurship in France, pledging to make the country a better place to do business, in the mould of Germany and Scandinavian countries.

“We are the only major economy in the European Union that has not defeated mass unemployment for more than three decades,” he told Le Point magazine in an interview published late on Wednesday.

Macron warned last week that “the French hate reforms” and that what he was proposing was a “profound transformation” to boost the country’s global standing.

His words were borne out by the results of a survey published yesterday, which suggested that a majority of French people were against the reforms.

Of the 1,004 people surveyed by the Harris Interactive polling group on Aug 31, 58 per cent were against the reforms, with 42 per cent in favour.

However, 82 per cent of Macron voters supported them. The reforms will bring the first demonstrations against his government, with the CGT union and the new leftist France Unbowed party calling for protests on Sept 12 and 23.

Philippe Martinez, the head of the CGT, said Thursday that “all our fears have been confirmed” by the announcements, which come as Macron’s approval ratings have fallen sharply.

Recent polls showed that only around 40 per cent of French voters are satisfied with his performance in office, with analysts attributing the disaffection to a mix of communication problems and political missteps.

French labour law is enshrined in a thick red book that runs to around 3,000 pages, covering everything from health and safety to contract law, bonuses and pensions.

Macron aims to hugely simplify it, codifying basic employment protections in law but leaving companies, trade unions and employees to negotiate much of the rest, giving them greater flexibility.

Macron has fast-tracked the labour reform via executive orders, which will be adopted by the government next month.

They must be ratified by parliament afterwards but are nearly certain to pass given the large majority of the president’s centrist Republic on the Move party.

The overhauls are likely to provide fresh ammunition for opponents of Macron who accuse the former investment banker of pandering to business owners with his programme, which also includes cuts to taxes and public spending.

France Unbowed leader JeanLuc Melenchon, who finished fourth in this year’s presidential election, has called for a mass march against what he describes as a “social welfare coup d’etat”.

“Macron, president of the rich?” asked a front-page headline in the left-leaning Liberation newspaper this week. — AFP