Paris, France: More Riots on the Way...

Well, just as I used to get snow days in Canada, I'm getting a riot day in France tomorrow. I'm sure that you all remember the riots that went on a few months back. If not, I'll do my best to fill you in real quick.

Basically, what happened is that people living in impoverished neighborhoods with average unemployment numbers easily reaching 60-70% got really mad at the government. They wanted change in the labor laws so that they would be able to find work within their country. They did have a point as not only those neighborhoods suffered high unemployment, the country does as a whole with that number climbing over 10%. Considering that North America is seeing figures such as 4% or 5%, it is understandable that people would have problems with their government.

Well, fast-forward to a week ago and we see an all new problem. The government figured out that they needed to change something. They found an interesting law to fix, one which makes France very different from the rest of the world and allows for oodles and oodles of job security. In essence, this particular law makes it nearly impossible for any single employer to fire his employees in France. To do so, you need to gather months of evidence, present it before a judge which will then decide whether your reasons for firing that particular employee are valid. Not only this, but valid reasons seldom include an employee not actually doing his or her job or slacking off. Believe it or not, the plot continues to thicken because if the employer loses, he's got a lawsuit of his own to fend off. In other words, capitalists need to sit back and accept the situation. If you can't fire a French guy, just hire an American and bring him over. That's actually the same reason I'm here, believe it or not.

So what did they do to this law? Well, they've made it such that new employees under the age of 26 are on "probation", where they can be fired without the need for a reason or going to court. That in and of itself does not so bad and actually makes sense. The youth of today will get hired much more easily since the employers can fire them if they suck. It would reduce unemployment by leaps and bounds, but now the young educated people are unhappy. They've just lost all the job security that they would have had before because of riots due to uneducated and unemployed.

The solution? Riot of course! If it were only students that felt affected by this, I'd surely not have a riot day tomorrow, though. As before, the plot re-thickens itself. All educated people, from old to young hate this law. As a matter of fact, 80% of the educated population (i.e. voting people) say that they would like to see this law abolished. They're not insane either, there is also a reason for this. It's because they feel that this law is likely being used as a wedge for other similar laws to pass in the near future. Let it happen, they will not. I'm not sure if the Chirac will succumb to the pressure of riots again this time. It'll be interesting to watch this one play out.

In any case, I'm goin to fully enjoy my riot day tomorrow. This basically just means a four day week for me. That's just me being selfish though :-)

Some (if not most) people in Britian affectionately call him 'The Worm'.

It's No wonder there are riots...the worm couldnt lead a 1-man-band safely down the street, let alone run a government!!

The way i understand it is; France has an incredibly high minimum wage? Scrapping that minimum wage will mean that employers can employ more people, albeit at lower average wages. Now for those unemployed, this is a seemingly good idea, but those who are employed (and on the MW) are not willing to take a wage drop.

The need to drop this MW and increase the employers ability to hire and fire as easily as law would allow - as you mentioned mrps2man. Have i got the gist of it?

French minimum wage is approx 8 euros/5.5 UK pounds/9.5 US dollars on a 35hr work week/max under law.

Well, minimum wage is high, but it has little to do with it. This is all to do with job security. Now, you need to go to extreme lengths to fire somebody and it is really not worth it in most cases. That's the problem: employers have little to no flexibility while employees can do what they want. Hiring a french guy means that you're stuck with him for a good while, usually until he/she quits because you can't fire him. The law wants to change this for those under 26 years of age. People don't like it because they think that this is going to be used as a wench to move the law further and further...

Isn't France going through recession right now?

I think they are probably trying to over regulate everything and are losing at the battle. A lot of European countries have problems with too much regulation, I guess France is showing that they have too much. It sounds like they really need to start government projects like they did in the Great Depression and hopefully they'll be able to come out of the economic slowdown. 70% is a really high. Only place you see that is on Indian Reservations out West but that's a different story.

[Devil's Advocate]

On the flip side, the law makes it essentially impossible to have an established career until you turn 26.

[/Devil's Advocate]

The Frenchies don't like the new law because it moves France closer towards a capitalist government. When companies have the power, you lose a bit of socialism...