French business leaders applaud Macron labor reforms
PARIS: French business leaders have applauded President Emmanuel Macron’s overhaul of the labor 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 labor regulations as key to tackling the unemployment rate, currently 9.5 percent 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 prohibitive costs of firing employees 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. - First major protests - His words were borne out by the results of a survey published Friday, 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 August 31st, 58% percent were against the reforms, with 42% percent in favour.
However, 82% percent 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 September 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.