Macron signs sweeping labour reform into law

Paris, Sept. 22: President Emmanuel Macron on Friday signed sweeping changes to France’s complex labour code into law, ramming through a landmark reform four months into his administration despite protests from hardline unions.

“The reform constitutes an unprecedented transformation of our social model (and) the economic functioning of our country,” the 39-year-old Macron said, adding that it had been “carried out in record time”.

The measures are designed to give employers more flexibility to negotiate pay and conditions with their workers while making it easier and less costly to shed staff. Mr Macron signed the reform, contained in five executive orders, seated at his desk in the Elysee Palace before television cameras in a USinspired novelty for a French President.

The overhaul, eagerly awaited by the business community and France's EU partners, was fasttracked via executive orders as a way of avoiding a prolonged debate in The reform constitutes an unprecedented transformation of our social model (and) the economic functioning of our country Emmanuel

Macron, Parliament. The measures chip into worker protections that have long been sacrosanct in France, frustrating reform-minded governments whether on the left or the right. But Macron insisted Friday that the reform contained “new rights and new protections”, such as a provision for higher payouts to workers made redundant. — AFP