France's Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Monday kicked off three days of talks aimed at salvaging deeply unpopular labour reform proposals, with street protests planned later in the week. Valls and his labour and economy ministers held a string of meetings with leading unions to garner support for the measures that would give bosses more flexibility in hiring and firing.
CFDT secretary general Laurent Berger dismissed suggestions that his union, one of the largest, might be more receptive to the reforms than others. "We will not be used by anyone," he told reporters, adding: "If there is no change, the CFDT will be able to mobilise" its forces in opposition.
Meetings with various employers' groups were set for later Monday to reassure them over the thrust of the El Khomri draft law, unveiled in mid-February and named after Labour Minister Myriam El Khomri. Meanwhile the Valls government faces intense popular pushback to the reform plans, with seven in 10 French people opposed, according to a poll. And an online petition initiated by 35-year-old feminist Caroline de Haas has attracted more than a million signatures.
Youth groups and other organisations have called demonstrations for Wednesday and later in the month to protest against the plans, which many think will fail in the primary mission of creating jobs. Young people are at the centre of the debate, since at 25 percent, youth unemployment in France is among the highest in Europe. The reforms are part of efforts to combat 10.2 percent unemployment in the eurozone's second-largest economy, where employers are loath to take on permanent workers because of stiff obstacles to laying them off in lean times.
Currently French companies have to justify in court plans to shed workers if the decision is taken due to an economic downturn, a process they say makes them reluctant to hire in the first place. The reforms spell out simple conditions such as falling orders or sales, or operating losses, as sufficient cause for shedding staff. They would also cut overtime pay for work beyond 35 hours - the work week famously introduced in the 1990s in an earlier Socialist bid to boost employment. Instead of the current 25 percent overtime bonus, employers would pay only 10 percent.
Critics of the El Khomri law warn that young people's clout should not be underestimated, recalling a protest movement 10 years ago that forced a right-wing government to back down on a plan to allow bosses to fire workers under 26 for any reason. Valls on Sunday insisted that "it is the youths who stand the most to gain from this law, because they are the leading victims of the current system: insecurity and endless series of short contracts."
He told the weekly Journal du Dimanche that while the draft could be improved, "What we cannot do is maintain the status quo." The chorus of opposition - from unions, the public and within the Socialist Party itself, which accuses Valls of being unabashedly pro-business - already derailed a plan to submit the proposals to the cabinet this week, a step that has been postponed to March 24.
The prime minister said he was open to modifying two of the most contested measures, the grounds on which businesses can justify layoffs and a cap on the amount of damages they must pay for wrongful dismissal. The CFDT's Berger warned earlier Monday that it would not budge on the latter issue. A spokesman of the largest bosses' group, Medef, has warned: "This had better not lead to a watering-down of the text. The reforms must remain very ambitious."
Unions are split over whether the law can be suitably revamped or needs to be scrapped entirely. Pascal Pavageau, economy pointman of the Force Ouvriere union, said Sunday that rather than "negotiate the weight of the ball and the length of the chain we call on (Valls) to withdraw this text."
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