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French government hits back as bosses stage anti-tax, labour law protests

A leader of the ruling Socialist Party has accused France’s bosses of leading the opposition to President François Hollande’s government, half way through an employers’ week of action against taxes and labour laws.

France's Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron (R) with President François Hollande
France's Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron (R) with President François Hollande Reuters/Philippe Wojazer
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The big employers’ union, Medef, was joined by smaller bosses’ groups in a press conference and mass meeting in the central city of Lyon, following highly unusual demonstrations in Paris and Toulouse, in the south-west, on Monday.

The bosses claim they are weighed down by taxes and demand the scrapping of three of the government’s proposed changes to labour law – limiting part-time contracts to 24 hours per week, obliging employers to inform workers of plans to close businesses and allowing early retirement or retraining for workers in stressful conditions such as night shifts.

On Wednesday Socialist Party first secretary Jean-Christophe Cambadélis accused the Medef of behaving like a political party.

“For the last two years the Medef has taken over the leadership of the opposition in the place of the UMP [the mainstream right-wing political party],” he told business paper Les Echos.

The government has granted 50 billion euros-worth of reductions in employers’ social security contributions, Cambadélis claimed, “but for the employers’ organisations it’s never enough”.

The government’s patience appeared to snap on Tuesday when Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who assured bosses of his “love” for business as soon as he took office, accused some “irresponsible” business leaders of “provocation”.

Earlier Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron complained that hardly any agreements had been signed following the government’s Responsibility Pact, which conceded 40 billion euros in tax breaks in other sweeteners before 2017 as part of a deal that was supposed to create 500,000 jobs before 2017.

“That's a failure and today, that's also his failure," he said, referring to Medef leader Pierre Gattaz.

Medef board member Thibault Lanxade hit back, declaring Macron’s statement “incomprehensible” and accusing him of playing politics.

One of the far-right Front National’s MPs, Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, called Valls’s statement “scandalous”, accusing him of “vilifying” employers, while far-left activist Olivier Besancenot dismissed the spat as political theatre, pointing out that top incomes continue to rise and companies are paying out profits in dividends rather than investing.

Government ministers seemed in more positive mood on Wednesday.

Macron himself said he was “confident and optimistic” that various branches of industry would sign job-creating deals by the end of the year, while government spokesperson Stéphane Le Foll predicted that agreements covering nearly six million workers would be agreed before January.

Left-wing daily Libération on Wednesday outlined the pro-business measures taken by the government, claiming that employers have been given more than the 30-billion-euro reduction in labour costs they demanded two years ago.
 

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