Take this job and shove it, monsieur!

Paul in Cannon Beach

French police donned riot gear and fired tear gas into angry crowds of students at the Sorbonne University on Saturday.

The French students were protesting a new employment plan that has caused Prime Minister Villepin's popularity to tumble.

Apparently this employment plan or contract would allow employers to hire people under age 26 for a two year trial period before offering them a permanent position.

While the Prime minister and other supporters of the plan say it was designed to encourage companies to hire younger workers, critics say it will just make it easier to fire younger workers which will just increase feelings of insecurity.

I wonder what "permanent" employment means in France? It looks like this plan creates a two year "at will" window allowing ee's to be terminated without cause.

Apparently this plan is part of an "emergency employment strategy" aimed at reducing France's climbing unemployment rate. Apparently 42 percent of French youth leaving secondary school without "special skills" are unemployed.

hhaynal

I can offer one comment, in France, once your hired permanently it is almost impossible to terminate an employee for cause. France doesn't recognize the at will doctrine! Once you're hired, dismissal for cause AND the employer must jump through hoops and provide opportunities for the employee to improve. And even if you do everything called for and term, the employee still goes to the Employment Council, cries foul and gets an award of base damages that has been created by statute.

Maybe that's why the current younger work force in France isn't working......all the veterans are still in their jobs cause the employer can't get them out!

ray a

My nephew is a Captain in the Army and currently serving in the Netherlands doing essentially HR work employing locals for the Army base. He hates it. Can't fire, can't discipline and they can show up when they like and do what they like. He's almost looking forward to his next assignment in Iraq.

Paul in Cannon Beach

Interesting.

Apparently since 2000, the official French work week is 35 hours.

Vacation benefits are generous as well with employees earning an average of four weeks off annually.

Whirlwind

Zut alors!

LarryC

What does Zut mean?

Whirlwind

Sometime in my distant past, I spoke enough French to get by. The idiom 'zut alors' is kind of an all-purpose exclamation. I'm not sure whether 'zut' means anything by itself, but maybe someone more fluent than I can help us out here.

Are there any Francophiles in our midst? I know it's not a popular thing to admit these days.

Paul in Cannon Beach

Must I always follow Whirlwind and explain what she is talking about?

Zut alor - "darn it" An outdated French phrase but the short version "Zut!" is still in use.

Paul in Cannon Beach

So, nationwide strikes are now planned for tomorrow (Tuesday) as the dispute over a new law that would essentially make workers under 26 "at will" employees.

The irony of course is that the new law was designed to encourage employers to hire younger workers.

marc

The socialism that cripples France and certain other EU countries is showing it's ugly side in many areas. This is one of them. Essentially, the French economy cannot grow enough to employ it's people. Combine that with a hugh mass of immigrants that are also demanding equality in terms of meeting base economic needs, and significant issues - demonstrated by fairly recent riots all over the country - and you see a country in deep trouble.

No wonder they dislike most things American.

Paul in Cannon Beach

Apparently SPRING BREAK has managed to do what the French government and riot police could not - stop the youth riots that had gripped much of France for several weeks.

Paul in Cannon Beach

President Chirac accepted a humbling defeat and rescinded the controversial employment reform that would have made it easier to hire (and fire) young people in hopes of reducing the staggering youth unemployment rate.

LarryC

It was bound to happen sooner or later in the history of the world: The French have finally surrendered to themselves.

NaeNae55

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Good one Larry!

xclap

DeidreFR5

In France, you can only fire for cause. Their definition of "for cause" is much different than ours - steal a great deal from the company (small amounts are excusable and even if they go to jail, you may have to take them back), etc. It is basically impossible to fire someone, so businesses are looking hard at whether they want to hire or not (thus the high unemployment amount youths). Many companies are starting assess whether they want to stay in France or move elsewhere. This law was suppose to help keep businesses in place.

Paul in Cannon Beach

I think fear won the day here.

The youth were afraid that give up the very protections that were keeping many of them unemployed.

Pretty short sighted if you think about it. Villepin blamed the failure of this reform on a lack of "trust" between employers and workers.

Imagine the frustration of practicing HR in a culture where you essentially can't terminate employees and the employees know it.

If any of you work for the US Postal Service you dont have to imagine that hard...

marc

And put these most recent riots in context.

The attempts to tinker with the employment laws were in direct response to the earlier riots where so many immigrants and young were rioting because there were no jobs.

Paul in Cannon Beach

Yep, basically they were rioting to protect their jobs that they don't have...