During his first meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel as French president, Emmanuel Macron admitted that it would be important to bring some changes to the French society in order to strengthen ties with Germany. Macron had told Merkel that the future of Eurozone would depend on those changes.
The 39-year-old newly-elected president did something that nobody else had done before him. He intervened in the workers’ ‘right to work’ and amended the labour laws. Other Western European states – like Germany, Italy and Spain – had carried out the reform programmes in the past. But, France amended the labour laws through an ordinance in September. And on November 28, the French Parliament passed the laws by 463-74 votes.
Many describe the move as a “silent and bloodless counter-revolution”. “More work and less wages” was the essence of the European labour markets from the Industrial Revolution to the WWII. However, France was an exception. In 1936, socialists, communists and other democratic forces managed to form a government in Paris. And the government started holding discussions on workers’ wages and retirement age at the official level (in a rare first in Europe). Later, the post-war welfare state accepted this socialist ideology. The French society binned the traditional Christian concept of labour and accepted the ‘retirement centric’ concept.
In post-WWII France, the economy was not only productive, but it also had some social responsibilities. The French government had given priority to the workers’ comfort and their safety. Things changed in the 1970’s due to an increase in prices of petrol and other petroleum products. Many factories were shut down and it triggered unemployment. For the French workers, it became important to ‘save’ their jobs.
In the past, the French workers had a safeguard – a set of labour laws. In a booklet, the French government mentioned all the rights acquired by the workers from the 19th century and explained sections and sub-sections of various complex labour laws. In the 1970’s, the factory owners – especially the small and medium investors – urged the government to simplify those laws, saying that they were creating troubles for factory owners, who wanted to reduce their work force.

The government accepted the proposal and simplified the labour laws. Earlier, a law – enacted by the Parliament – dealt with the recruitment of temporary workers. However, the industrial sector got the right to make a final decision in this regard after the simplification. As far as automobile, steel, energy sectors are concerned, industrialists started fixing the term of temporary workers’ and renewal of contracts in the 1970’s.
The change in the agreement regarding the permanent appointment of workers had been made long ago. The appointment of ‘permanent’ staff for different projects was basically another form of ‘temporary recruitment’. Workers used to lose jobs after the completion of projects. It means workers lost jobs in case of project-based recruitments, but they did not receive the compensation as they didn’t have the status of ‘temporary’ workers.
Currently, there are workplace-based committees in France to monitor or supervise the workers’ safety at workplaces, cleanliness and healthcare. Under the current laws, the government has the power to dismantle these committees. Undoubtedly, it’s an attack on workers’ right to safety, cleanliness and health, which they ‘earned’ through centuries-old movements. The new laws also refuse to accept the idea that labour is essentially a tough and painful process. The idea had prompted France to establish a social security system for workers in the post-WWII era.
In case of medical leaves, the government employees have to sacrifice one day’s salary, while private sector employees sacrifice three days’. As per the new laws, the same rule will be applicable for all the sectors. It means that the government staff (too) will have to sacrifice three days’ earnings. Industrialists have always considered illness as workers’ excuse not to join the work and the French government has accepted the view.
The last issue is related to labour and judiciary. So far, workers have enjoyed the right to move the court in case of ‘illegal’ sacking and to get ‘suitable’ compensation. The Macron Administration has fixed the upper limit of this compensation in order to please the industrialists. Oppositions are of the opinion that the new laws give ‘legal validity’ to the ‘illegal’ sacking.

According to French intellectuals, the new labour laws are the outcome of collective thinking of three parties – workers, industrialists and the government. The Macron Administration has claimed that it passed new laws in an attempt to increase job opportunities, instead of encouraging the age-old policy of compensating the unemployed people.
The government has argued that the so-called ‘social security system’ failed to protect the interest of the job seekers, rather increased the unemployment. The government believes job opportunities can be increased only by creating investment opportunities. It has further argued that flexibility in contracts between the workers and industrialists will help France tackle the economic crisis. President Macron is concentrating on ‘supply’, and not on ‘demand’, to overcome the economic crisis, as he believes better wages and security for workers will definitely increase peoples’ purchasing power, but it’s also important to reduce the cost of labour and production. Or else, it will be difficult for France to maintain a steady economic growth, said the president.
In today’s economy, no job is ‘permanent’. So, it becomes crucial for workers to have ‘specialised training’ in order to secure their jobs. As a result, France has decided to spend a huge amount of money to train the workforce. For President Macron, it’s a democratic responsibility as he assured people that his government would reform labour laws before winning the election.
What Macron said in 2017 is nothing new. Before him, François Hollande (in 2016), Nicolas Sarkozy (in 2012) and even Jacques Chirac (in 1988) had expressed the same view. Some say that the European Union (EU) is the original proponent of this labour policy. But, the question is how can the EU influence Paris to bin its decades-old ‘labour-friendly’ policies so easily? There are so many answers……..it may be because of the attitude of the new government or the lack of understanding between opposition parties and different labour organisations or the French peoples’ silent consent.
Once, American civil rights activist César Chávez said: “History will judge societies and governments – and their institutions – not by how big they are or how well they serve the rich and the powerful, but by how effectively they respond to the needs of the poor and the helpless.”

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das