In August 2005, the Villepin government created the ‘new recruitment contract’ (/Contrat nouvelles embauches/, CNE). It provides for a so-called two-year ‘consolidation period’, during which employers – without having to give any reasons – can in theory terminate this type of employment contract (
The ‘new recruitment contract’ (/Contrat nouvelles embauches/, CNE) concerns small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with 20 or fewer employees (*FR0507103F* [1]). It was established by executive order [2] on 2 August 2005 with the aim of boosting employment, and since then has been strongly
The new law on equal opportunities (in French) [1] contains several important provisions that have been largely overshadowed by the debate on the ‘First job contract’ law (/Contrat première embauche/, CPE) (*FR0605059I* [2]). These measures (*FR0605049I* [3]) include an unexpected amendment that was
New legislation that was adopted in France in January 2005 changes the regulations on employment placement services. The state-run National Employment Agency (ANPE) no longer has a monopoly (if only theoretical) over placement services and may create fee-charging subsidiaries, while temporary
This article gives a brief overview of the industrial relations aspects of the topic of unskilled workers and unskilled work in France, as of February 2005. It looks at: national definitions of unskilled workers or work; the number of unskilled workers and workers in unskilled jobs, and the extent
A report on employment law reform, commissioned by the French government, was issued in January 2004. The most controversial proposal in the 'Virville report' is the creation of a new 'assignment contract', enabling employees to be recruited for the duration of a particular project. Such a contract
Following a period of very rapid growth in the latter half of the 1990s, in 2003 French computer services and engineering companies are facing their sharpest drop in business ever. It is reported that these firms tend to shy away from collective redundancy procedures and have instead been quietly
Over June-September 2002, the French components manufacturer, Alcatel, announced 19,000 job losses, on top of major workforce reductions which have occurred since 2000 as the group has concentrated its activities on telecommunications components and divested factories. The latest redundancy plans
In February 2000, the management of the De Carbon shock absorber manufacturer in France barred its employees from entering its plant for five days on the grounds that its proposed redundancy plan, cutting the workforce by more than half, had created a "climate of violence" at the site. Following a