PARIS, April 1: France’s left-wing parties on Saturday rejected President Jacques Chirac’s call for dialogue, reaffirming their plans to march next week against a youth job law they insist the government should withdraw. Opposition groups, reacting to Mr Chirac’s Friday speech saying he would sign the law but modify it, said they would join unions and students to stage more big protests that have gripped France and put Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin under pressure.
“We have confirmed our unanimous agreement to demand the definitive withdrawal of the CPE (law) and the opening of real negotiations with all unions, students and high school pupils before any new law goes before parliament,” Patrick Farbiaz, a leader of the ecologist Greens party, said after a meeting.
A conservative strategy huddle earlier on Saturday agreed the law’s critics had to hold talks with the government before it could introduce any modifications to the law allowing bosses to sack workers under 26 during a two-year trial period.
Protesters, who numbered more than one million on Tuesday, say the First Job Contract (CPE) creates ‘Kleenex jobs’ that make it easier for firms to dispose of young workers. Violence flared at some of the demonstrations.
Business leaders fear more protests could damage France’s image and hit investment and tourism, especially since the unrest has erupted so soon after rioting by angry youths in the poor suburbs around France’s main cities late last year.
Opposition parties would flood the country with pamphlets and launch a protest petition in the run-up to Tuesday’s ‘action day’ of strikes and demonstrations, Mr Farbiaz said.
Mr Chirac said on Friday evening that he would sign the law but then follow up with a new law amending it to shorten the trial period to one year and require employers to justify any firing.
Former Socialist finance minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn said he had missed the point of the students’ protests.
“They don’t want just a trial period shortened from two to one year. They want their work contract to be the same as other workers’,” he said after the left-wing meeting.
Many older French workers have long-term contracts with strong job protection, which employers say puts them off adding young workers to their staff. Youth unemployment stands at 22 per cent in France, far above the 9.6 per cent national average.
<> BAD REVIEWS: Mr Chirac’s long-awaited speech met with flat rejection from his critics and only a tepid welcome from a friendly newspaper.
“This confusion cannot stop the crisis,” said the left-wing daily Liberation, criticising Mr Chirac for signing the disputed jobs law but asking employers not to use it until a follow-up law modifies its most contested measures.
The conservative Le Figaro praised Mr Chirac for seeking a compromise but warned that all sides — protesters, government and opposition — ‘must enter the game before events get out of hand for all of us’.
Laurence Parisot, head of the employers’ association MEDEF, praised Mr Chirac’s move and urged the government not to give in on its plan to let employers give reasons for firing only verbally.
“If it’s written down, that changes the nature of the trial period,” she said, arguing that a written letter of dismissal would trigger a complex mechanism of worker protection laws that employers say puts them off hiring in the first place.
“The labour law has become incomprehensible for employers, especially the law on dismissals,” she told Europe 1 radio.
Commentators said Mr Chirac’s proposal aimed at saving face for Mr Villepin, whose effort to ram through the reform has forged a united front of students, workers and left-wing parties, and split the opposition.
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, Mr Villepin’s main rival to become the governing UMP party’s candidate for president next year, backed the call for a serious dialogue and urged protesters to join in. “We are all agreed on this strategy,” he said after the meeting.
But Jean-Claude Mailly, head of the Force Ouvriere union, said Mr Chirac’s plan was ‘incomprehensible and unacceptable’.
“Today is April Fool’s Day. If this weren’t so serious, I’d think the speech was delivered today,” he told Europe 1 radio. —Reuters
