Originally Posted by
Bidule
For sure, it is obsolete to try to keep working and living conditions which seem to be (a bit) civilised. That's true that the "0 hours" contracts are the future of the human beings!
Who mentioned zero-hour contracts?
It would be nice to be able to offer 40-hour contracts, but of course that's illegal in France. And from a practical point of view, it's impossible to offer 10-hour contracts too. I know dozens of local (French) businesses that would dearly love to employ one, two or three extra people so that they could keep trading through lunchtime or until 8 or 9pm, but they can't take the risk of being saddled with an unsackable worker. Then there's the risk of going over the magic 50 employee barrier and suddenly you, as the employer, have to house and fund a "comité d'entreprise" even though your entreprise is already bound by a raft of "conventions" drawn up by the union élite. Then there are the limits on opening times - now, thankfully being overtly challenged by a few heavyweight companies, but there's a long way to go.
The defenders of the traditional French way of life seem to forget that the vast majority of people calling for change are French people born and reared in that tradition, but who want the Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité promised to them by the French state. The internet and the free movement of goods and people in the EU offers that, but the current administration carries on the work of the previous in doing everything possible to deny ordinary French citizens access to those values.
Later today (10th October) the
Union des Français de l'Etranger hosts an event in Paris specifically encouraging their fellow citizens to leave France and set up business in the UK. What does that say about the level of national pride in the country today?