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Paris / AFP
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls unveiled measures on Monday to help young people find work, aiming to quell weeks of protests against the government’s proposed reforms to labour laws.
Young people have been at the forefront of mass demonstrations against the reforms over the past month, which the government argues are aimed at making France’s rigid labour market more flexible.
Opponents say the reforms are too pro-business and will fail to reduce the 25 percent jobless rate among the young which has been a millstone around the neck of President Francois Hollande’s Socialist government.
The measures put forward Monday, worth up to 500 million euros ($570 million) a year, include an initiative to encourage employers to hire young workers on full-time contracts rather than on a part-time basis.
Employers would be forced to pay additional taxes on short-term contracts as an incentive to hiring on long-term contracts instead. Another proposal is for new graduates of modest means to receive a four-month extension to their study grants to tide them over until they find work.
Valls’ office believes 126,000 people could benefit from that measure.
UNEF, the biggest student union, welcomed the new proposals that were presented during a meeting between Valls and Labour Minister Myriam El Khomri, who drew up the reforms, and eight youth organisations. UNEF leader William Martinet said: “Young people have obtained strong measures because they got organised and stuck their heads above the parapet.” But he said the new proposals “don’t resolve all of the disagreements” and that UNEF still intended to join the next major protest on April 28.
“France must listen to its young people,” Valls said after the meeting. The prime minister has already watered down the reform proposals in an unsuccessful attempt to gain the support of unions. The reforms would remove some of the obstacles to laying off workers, but its detractors fear it will erode the cast-iron job security that French workers on full-time contracts enjoy.
On Saturday, around 120,000 people joined protests across France against the reforms, compared with 390,000 who took to the streets on March 31, with some observers suggesting the protests are running out of steam. Opposition to the reform has also been one of the many causes championed by the “Up All Night” activists, a group of predominantly young people who have held overnight protests since March 31 in cities across France.
Riot police in Paris on Monday cleared away the main Up All Night camp from Place de la Republique but activists have vowed to return for a 12th night of demonstrations.