The possibility that the French government might abandon its controversial new labour law, which has brought hundreds of thousands onto the streets in opposition to the reform, is no longer on the agenda with the bill now on its path through parliament.
That was made clear on Monday by Prime Minister Manuel Valls when he met with the leaders of eight associations representing higher education and secondary school students who have been among the most active opponents to the new law.
But the government is keen to reach a consensus with the students to defuse the growing number of protest demonstrations, and on Monday, together with labour minister Myriam El Khomri and education minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, Valls proposed a package of measures to improve the financial situations of young people entering the job market.
The student unions largely approved the propositions, describing them variously as “significant”, “real progress” and “a victory”, but they warned they would continue to oppose the new labour law, dubbed the ‘El Khomri law’ with a fresh day of national protests due later this month.
Enlargement : Illustration 1
Beginning in March, several secondary school student unions, notably the FIDL and UNL, and the higher education students’ union, the UNEF, have mounted a determined campaign of protests and demonstrations against what they consider to be a pro-business reform that weakens employees’ rights and protection, notably by easing ‘hire and fire’ restrictions. The government has defended the bill as a necessary step to counter France’s endemic unemployment, now at around 10% of the active population, by freeing up of the strict labour market regulations to encourage employers to hire more easily.
Since early March, universities and secondary schools have been targeted by blockades, while on Saturday the sixth national demonstration of student and trades unions against the reform saw 120,000 turn out across France, according to police figures.
Meanwhile, the Nuit Debout movement of nocturnal “citizen” sit-ins (see more here), at the Place de la République in central Paris, largely attracting young participants but not only, and which has spread to other towns and cities across France since it began on March 31st, has continued unabated. While the Nuit Debout sit-ins are largely unaligned citizen gatherings of those who seek change to the current political and social systems, they began as an appendage to the protests against the ‘El Khomri law’ and represent a focal point of revolt against the government.
Every French government has a fear of popular student opposition movements which have in the past forced U-turns on major reforms, notably that in 2006 which scuppered new workplace contracts proposed by the conservative government of prime minister Dominique de Villepin under President Jacques Chirac. With presidential elections due in May next year, President François Hollande’s expected re-election bid would be seriously compromised if the current opposition to the labour reform, led by both student and trades unions, accelerates.
Within this uncertain and potentially socially explosive context, Prime Minister Valls on Monday announced a package of measures aimed specifically at the young, awho Hollande had pledged at the start of his term of office were to be made a priority in society. “Never has so much been done for the young in this country,” claimed Valls on Monday. “Never has a government mobilised itself so much so that the coming generation has all its chances in hand.”
Valls insisted that the negotiations on Monday were “not to extinguish contestation [...] but to answer profound concerns”. In doing so, the government has pledged measures that will have an annual cost of between 400-500 million euros, further renouncing its previous obsession of reining in public spending, which in 2015 saw the public deficit reach 3.8% of GDP. The new measures will either be written into the labour reform bill in the form of an amendment, or be included in a bill of law on ‘equality and citizenship’ to be presented this Wednesday before a cabinet meeting by Patrick Kanner, minister for urban affairs, youth and sport.
They include the introduction of increased financial aid for students entering the labour market after obtaining a diploma, ranging from those leaving secondary school to degree graduates. The financial aid is spread over several months, a period the government said would be equivalent to the average period of unemployment for qualified students “during the first three years of active life”. It calculates that this will affect 126,000 young people at the end of the current academic year, and will cost 136 million euros over one year.
Higher education students who are currently exonerated from university inscription fees because of their modest financial backgrounds, estimated to total 25,000, will receive, beginning this year, an annual grant of 1,000 euros, a measure that will cost 25 million euros.
Secondary school student grants are to increase by 10%, at an annual cost of 28 million euros, and 16-18-year-olds who have dropped out of school and who want to return to studies will have access as of September to 12,500 one-off grants of 1,000 euros, estimated to cost 12.5 million euros.
Another 80 million euros will be dedicated to increasing the minimum legal salaries of apprentices aged between 16 and 20, while the exact detail of how this will be put into practice is to be the subject of negotiations between trades unions and employers’ organizations.
Meanwhile, a fund to help struggling young adults aged 30 or less provide financial guarantees for renting out lodgings will be created, and which will cost an annual 100 million euros. Under the scheme, the state, via funding out of national social security contributions, will provide the guarantees demanded by property owners. A further 15-20 million euros per year will be spent on speeding up the access to basic health insurance for an estimated 30,000-50,000 young people who have left home and who are no longer in relation with their families (thus cutting them off from healthcare rights).
Other measures include the annual creation over five years of 2,000 places in a ‘superior technician’ diploma course aimed at giving technical and professional school leavers a higher qualification. The government has also accepted a key demand by student unions that fixed-term employment contracts (contrat à durée determine, or CDD), which apply to 87% of first-time jobs, will be discouraged in favour of open-term contracts (CDIs) by raising the employers’ contributions for CDDs. Finally, in a scheme called la garantie jeunes (guarantee for the young), young adults in particularly difficult financial situations will receive an extra payment on top of their current rights and welfare assistance, with personalised professional training.
A 'smokescreen' for the labour law reform
William Martinet, head of the largest higher education students’ union, UNEF, hailed the deal as “a victory”, describing the measures as “significant” and a response to union demands.
“The access to social rights and stable employment were part of our demands,” he said. “It’s a victory and it’s the social power balance that allowed us to grab it. One month ago there was nothing and during the first meeting with Valls on March 11th the government thought it would get us back in line by proposing the falsely universal garantie jeunes. ”
Zoïa Guschlbauer, president of the secondary school union FIDL, said the measure were “satisfying and represent real progress, notably for those who drop out”. She regretted, however, that a proposition to include the highway code in school curricula to help school leavers obtain their driving licence, often necessary for job seekers, was not adopted. The measures were similarly met with approval by Samya Mokhtar, head of the higher secondary school (lycée) students’ union, the UNL. “Our demands were heard, we’ve obtained real progress on professional insertion,” she said.
All of the student representatives warned they would remain vigilant that the government’s promises would be put in practice. “There is all the same a very precise costing that meets what we established on our side,” said UNEF’s William Martinet. “There is no reason that the funding is not followed up.” But despite the apparent enthusiasm, the measures do not change what has been at the heart of the recent protests, namely the labour law reforms.
Government sources said the package presented by Valls was already in the planning stage when the level of the recent student protests prompted its rapid presentation. One minister contacted by Mediapart, speaking on condition his name was withheld, said he was sceptical about the success of the measures which were designed to extinguish the social revolt. He said they avoided the real issue, underlining that the El Khomri labour law reform, which is the target of the protests, has not been modified.
Indeed, the National Student Coordination organisation, which represents students of 68 universities and higher education institutions in the current protests against the proposed new law, described the package announced on Monday as “half-measures” and “a smokescreen” with regard to “the violence of the attacks contained in the labour law project”. Its representatives, who demand the withdrawal of the labour reforms, refused to take part in the discussions on Monday, criticising those who did.
Another student organisation, Solidaires étudiant-e-s, was similarly scathing. “For these [other student] organisations it is clearly about placing a few pawns and saving face, in the perspective of an eventual running out of steam of the current movement, so as to be able to claim for themselves a victory in every case,” it said in a statement issued Monday.
Both the National Student Coordination and Solidaires étudiant-e-s have called for the protests to continue, including during the imminent academic holidays. The UNEF, FIDL and UNL insist that they still want to see the labour law removed. All have called on their members to take part, alongside trades unions, in the next national day of protest called for April 28th. The level of turnout, amid a backdrop of union divisions, may well prove to be the watershed moment for both sides in the battle over the reforms.
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- The French version of this article can be found here.
English version by Graham Tearse