French unions are about to get a preview of President Emmanuel Macron’s upheaval of labor protection, and their expectations are low, reports Bloomberg.
The Labor Ministry will this week unveil the outcome of months of talks with union and company representatives, part of a plan by the new president to reinvigorate an economy that’s been underperforming the euro area. Worker groups have expressed concern about the impact of the change, with some warning of protests in response.
The publication comes as Macron travels to meet with Eastern European leaders in Austria and Bulgaria, which could inflame any union antagonism to the plan. He’s pressed on with the controversial reform even after a high-profile incident during the campaign, when he was jeered by workers at a Whirlpool factory in northern France. The facility is being shut down to shift production to Poland, a well-known scenario in several of the nation’s job-deprived regions.
The ministry will share details of the plan with employers’ lobby MEDEF at a meeting on Tuesday, with France’s two largest unions -- CFDT and CGT -- getting their peek on Wednesday. Legislation will be published at the end of the month, just as most employees return from summer vacation, to enable enforcement in September.
“This is clearly going to be a reform to serve large company’s interests,” said Fabrice Angei, a member of CGT, the country’s second-largest union. Gilles Lecuelle, national secretary at white-collar workers’ union CFE-CGC, said his union is “very worried” about the changes.
Among potential steps that have particularly irked unions, Macron would make it cheaper and easy for companies to fire illegally by limiting the amount of compensation workers would be able to claim in court. Firms would also be able to skip rules to pay night shifts or overtime better.
Macron has pledged France will be an exception no more in matters of workers’ rights. A thick red book known as “Code du travail” still governs labor relations in the country even as most of its peers have cut back regulation. For decades, protests have prevented the changes central bankers and executives say is needed to boost competitiveness and output.
The planned changes come as the euro area’s economic recovery continues to solidify, with even France, after years of erratic growth, recording consistent expansion in recent quarters. Unemployment was 9.5 percent in the three months through June, the lowest since 2012, but still double the rate in the U.K. and Germany.