A plan to overhaul labor rules is crucial to proving France's ability to reform, and the government will stand by it despite street protests and refinery blockades, finance minister Michel Sapin said in an interview, reports Reuters.
The government is under pressure to find a solution to its standoff on the labor reform with hardline union CGT ahead of the June 10 start of the Euro 2016 soccer championship in France, which the union has threatened to disrupt.
"First and foremost we must be firm," Sapin said in an interview with Reuters and three European newspapers.
"Doing otherwise would be wrong with respect to (other) labor unions, most of whom support the text."
The hardline CGT union has organized street protests, train strikes and refinery blockades to pressure the government to scrap reform plans.
But the moderate CFDT, France's other major labor union, backs a reform that will allow firms to lay off staff more easily in hard times but also give unions more power to negotiate deals in each firm rather than at national level.
In the interview, Sapin said he agreed with the tough stance taken by prime minister Manuel Valls, and that he had been misunderstood when he told LCP television earlier this week that "maybe" a key article of the draft bill could be tweaked to compromise.
"Article 2 is the symbol of the ability of France to reform," Sapin said.
Article 2 would let companies opt out of national obligations on labour protection if they adopt in-house deals on pay and conditions with the consent of a majority of employees.