NAN-F-34
Debate
Paris, July 10, 2017 (dpa/NAN) French National Assembly on Monday began its plenary debate on law to enable the government to push through President Emmanuel Macron’s proposed reforms to the labour code.
Macron, whose centrist party and allies hold 361 of the assembly’s 577 seats, said that reforming the complex and highly protective code will give employers more confidence to take on new staff.
The government seeks parliament’s approval to legislate by decree, bypassing the normal stages of legislative scrutiny in order to get the reforms in place by the end of September.
Labour Minister Muriel Penicaud, proposing the enabling law, said that the current labour code was too rigid for the modern workplace.
“Contrary to what is often thought, an excess of regulation does not provide good protection,” Penicaud argued.
The parliamentary debate is taking place in tandem with negotiations with trade unions and business groups on the content of the future decrees.
The mooted measures include shifting responsibility for agreeing certain working conditions from the sector to the workplace level and capping the damages payable for wrongful dismissal.
Left-wing groups in the National Assembly objected to the proposed measures as well as the move to push them through by decree.
“You ask us to renounce our role as legislators on a major issue.
“Our response is a big no,” Adrien Quatennens of the radical left La France Insoumise group said.
Socialist Deputy Ericka Bareigts argued that the proposals were “fertile ground for making employment more precarious.”
The debate is scheduled to continue till July 17. (dpa/NAN)
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Edited by Celine-Damilola Oyewole/Hadiza Mohammed-Aliyu