France's business lobby risks acrimonious infighting after the employers' confederation MEDEF on Sunday called for a shake-up of the powerful UIMM metal industry federation which is at the centre of a funding scandal.
UIMM this week confirmed a golden handshake was awarded to its former chief, who is at the centre of a probe which has raised suggestions that secret funds may have been used to finance some trades unions to try to avoid labour disputes.
With employers and unions in delicate talks on labour market reforms, public tolerance running low for big payouts for bosses, and municipal elections looming, MEDEF chief Laurence Parisot went on the offensive against the UIMM leadership. She told Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper that reform and transparency was vital to restore the tarnished image of business.
"I want to unite all those bosses who demand transparency and ethics, all those who are ready to rise up against the opaque dealings that some are inflicting on us and against their abusive sense of impunity," she told the Sunday newspaper.
UIMM, which is the biggest contributor to MEDEF's budget, was quick to launch a counterstrike.
"Given the violent campaign against UIMM, Frederic Saint-Geours, its new president, has decided to call an exceptional meeting on Monday to make the decisions and take the measures that are needed," a spokesman for UIMM told Reuters.
TERRIBLE PRESSURES:
Parisot, MEDEF's first female president, said many UIMM members shared her outrage and desire to clean up the business lobby but admitted she was embarking on a high-risk strategy. "No doubt I am exposing myself to terrible pressures with this approach but I will face up to it," Parisot said.
In October, Parisot reacted to the probe into multi-million euro cash withdrawals at UIMM by saying all business groups affiliated to her movement would in future have to present clear accounts that had been professionally certified.
The scandal took a new turn after UIMM this week confirmed a report that its former head, Denis Gautier-Sauvagnac, who is the target of the investigation, received a 1.5 million euro payout when he stepped down.
Gautier-Sauvagnac was also given an assurance that his federation would pay fines that might be imposed as a result of the investigation. "I've been furious. The whole thing is extremely shocking," Parisot told Le Journal du Dimanche when asked to react to the deal between UIMM and Gautier-Sauvagnac.
"Handing out such benefits in such circumstances is contemptuous and contemptible. It's a farce." Labour leaders have previously rejected suggestions that some of their members received handouts from UIMM, and said the scandal had been aimed at discrediting them ahead of a strike that took place in October to protest pension reform plans.
Their reaction to the UIMM deal with Gautier-Sauvagnac was similar to Parisot's, suggesting some of her allies in any fight with the UIMM might come from the trade union movement. "It's shocking and appalling. You have the feeling that business leaders are above the law," Francois Chereque, head of the moderate CFDT union told RTL radio on Sunday.