France CPE Riot Watch: Constitutional Council Upholds CPE Jobs Law

A student looks at a riot policeman during an occupation of the Gare du Lyon station in Paris, in protest against the controversial CPE youth jobs law, March 30, 2006.

ASSociated Press: French Council Upholds Divisive Jobs Law

France’s Constitutional Council upheld a new law Thursday making it easier to fire young workers, a measure that sparked nationwide strikes by labor unions and violent protests by students.

The council’s decision puts the onus on President Jacques Chirac to either implement the law as is — at the risk of further unrest — or negotiate a compromise, perhaps by sending the law back to parliament or by proposing modifications.

President Chirac will capitulate in some face saving way. But, if he deserts Villepin then………more protests and civil unrest.

Rarely has a decision by the council, which rules on the constitutionality of French laws, been so awaited. The student- and union-led protest movement has plunged Chirac’s government into crisis, and a decision to strike the law down would have offered a way out.

Instead, the ruling by the council’s nine appointed members allows the law to go into effect — depending on Chirac’s actions — making it easier for employers to fire workers aged under 26, a degree of flexibility that the government argues will spur hirings. Students and labor unions say the contract will erode France’s cherished workplace protections.

Lawmakers in Chirac’s governing majority said they expected him to enact the law quickly — a decision likely to further infuriate protesters. To soften the anger, Chirac may offer talks with labor leaders or appoint a mediator to deal with their concerns, lawmakers said.

With such an outpouring of opposition (albeit it missplaced) it is hard to believe that Chirac won’t do what the socialists in France tell him.

French gendarmes arrest a student on the Gare de Lyon rail tracks, as hundreds of demonstrating students blocked the rail tracks to protest against the new jobs contract in Paris, Thursday March 30, 2006. The fate of a contested French labor law that has inspired massive protests, gravely wounding its champion, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, hung Thursday on a council of experts.
But, stay tuned…….

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