Emmanuel Macron’s labour reforms

Emmanuel Macron’s labour reforms

埃马纽埃尔.马克龙的劳工改革

TheFrench president acts on his promise to overhaul jobs laws

法国总统践诺大改劳工法

Bold moves from the new leader

新官上任三把火

Europe Aug 31st 2017 | PARIS

欧洲8月31日于巴黎

WHEN he launched his political movement last year, Emmanuel Macron said that he wanted to “unblock” France. Four months after he was elected president, his government on August 31st unveiled its first piece of legislation designed to do just that. It is a labour reform, consisting of 36 measures, which should help to loosen the labour code, encourage job creation and make it easier for firms to manage their headcount in France. “After decades of mass unemployment,” said Edouard Philippe, the prime minister, “nobody can seriously say that our labour law favours job creation.” The reforms, he said, would “make up for lost decades.”

去年埃马纽埃尔.马克龙开始进行政治运动时，称想要“疏通”法兰西。当选总统4个月后，他的政府于8月31日公布了专为“疏通”设计的第一份法案。这是一个劳工改革法案，由36项措施组成，以期在国内松解其劳工法典，鼓励创造就业，且使得公司更易于管理员工数量。“大规模失业状况持续了几十年后，”总理爱德华.菲利普（Edouard Philippe）说，“没人相信我们的劳工法有利于创造就业。”这次改革，他说，将会“弥补几十年来的损失。”

The changes are wide-reaching and impressive, and rest on a number of guiding principles. One is that industrial relations must be devolved to the level of the firm. Employers will get more freedom to negotiate working time and salaries within their firm, rather than having to stick to branch-level agreements. France’s rate of unionisation in the private sector is surprisingly low; but the role of unions is powerfully entrenched by a complex tangle of rules governing their representation in companies. Now, the various statutory works councils—the delégués du personnel, the comité d’entreprise and the commit d’hygiène, de sécurité et des conditions de travail—are to be merged into one, which will simplify union discussions. Small firms without union representatives will have greater freedom to negotiate agreements, if they can secure the backing of a majority of employees.

这些改变的影响是深远的，且基于一系列指导原则。其一，产业关系必须贯彻到至企业层面。雇员将能更自主地和公司协商工作时间和薪资待遇，而不是非得死守分部合约。法国私营部门的联合度非常之低，但是各种联合会又深深受制于一众复杂的规定，这些规定管控着联合会在企业内扮演的角色。如今，各类法定工作委员会－劳工代表会、企业委员会、卫生安全工作条件委员会－将合并为一，随之即简化关于联合会的讨论。没有联合会代表的小企业将获得更多的自主权进行合约谈判，前提是他们拥有多数雇员的支持。

Another underlying idea is to encourage firms to create more permanent staff, by minimising the uncertainty that hangs over redundancy plans in France. Undercurrent law, cases for unfair dismissal can be brought against a company for up to two years after an employee has left a firm, and the awards made by labour tribunals in such cases vary hugely, making it difficult for small companies to plan their budgets. Mr Macron’s reform reduces the cut-off to one year and caps such awards to 20 months of salary for an employee with 30 years of service, thus greatly reducing the element of financial risk. (In return, the level of mandatory redundancy pay will be increased.) The rules governing the right to make redundancies for firms in economic difficulty will also be eased.

关于改革，另一个潜在想法就是鼓励企业创造更多的永久雇员名额，即最小化法国关于裁员计划的不确定性。根据现行法律，如果出现不公平解聘员工的情况，员工离开公司后这家公司面临长达两年的罪行控告，且劳资审裁处对于此类案件的裁定赔偿金迥异，这样小公司很难做预算。根据马克龙的改革方案，公司封杀时间减至一年，且对于服务30年的员工，赔偿金封顶为20个月薪资，由此大大降低金融风险的概率。（相应地，强制性遣散费水涨船高。）而对企业在经济困难时期裁员权利进行管控的政府规定也相对放松。

A measure of how far all this touches some of the taboos about France’s eye-popping 3,500-page labour code was the reaction of certain union leaders. “All our worst fears have been confirmed,” declared Philippe Martinez, leader of the hard-line Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT). He had already called for a day of strikes on September 12th in protest. Even Laurent Berger, the leader of the more moderate Confédération Française Démocratique du Travail (CFDT), who has been a mostly constructive voice, called some of its measures “disappointing”. He added, though, that he would not back the strikes.

这些措施触碰了法兰西令人瞠目的3500页劳工法典的禁忌，到底触碰到什么程度？从一些联合会领导人的反应中可见一斑。“我们已经坐实了最糟糕的恐惧，”强硬派的法国总工会（CGT）领导菲利普.马丁内兹（Philippe Martinez）如是宣称。他此前已经号召大家于9月12日进行一天的罢工抗议。即便是稍显温和的法国劳工民主联合会（CFDT）领导劳伦特.伯格（Laurent Berger），这个曾一度是最具建设性的声音也称有些措施“令人失望”。不过他补充说自己不会支持罢工。

This is a crucial moment for Mr Macron. In many ways, he has managed this reform deftly so far. He spelt out during the election campaign what he wanted to do (and has been as good as his word), and said in advance that his reform would go through under an accelerated parliamentary procedure. His government has held some 100 meetings, involving 300 hours of talks, with unions over the past couple of months. So nobody can say that they have been taken by surprise. As a result, the new rules should be written into law by the end of September. That minimises the amount of time that unions and other opponents of the reforms now have to mobilise against them.

对马克龙来说，当下是个关键时期。截至目前，在很多方面他都做到了让这场改革稳当进行。他在总统竞选中详述了自己想做什么（目前来看他践行了所言），而且他提前声明这场改革会走加速的议会程序。过去数月，马克龙的内阁已经和各个联合开了差不多100场会议，涉及300小时的磋商。所以没人敢说自己对新政新改大跌眼镜。随后，新政规定将于9月底写进法律。这就大大收紧了反对新政的联合会和人士动员聚集与之对抗的时间了。

Still, overthe summer Mr Macron’s approval ratings have slid precipitously. It will take time for the effects of the labour reform to feed into job creation. France’s unemployment rate is currently 9.8%—more than twice that in Germany—and has notdipped below 7% since 1983. Moreover, a worrying narrative is beginning to take hold in some quarters that the president, a former investment banker, is governing only for the bosses or the well-off. “Macron: president of the rich?” read the front cover of Libération, a left-leaning newspaper, last week. The government’s challenge will be to make the case that greater freedom for employers is not just about making it easier for bosses to shed staff, but about encouraging them to create jobs in the first place.

但是，马克龙的支持率经过一个夏天暴跌。诚然，劳工改革能否创造就业机会还有待时日证明。目前法兰西的失业率为9.8%－是德国的两倍多－且自1983年起没有跌出过7%。此外，某种忧患言论逐渐在坊间占据上风，说这位前投资银行家只是大佬们或者富裕阶层的总统，“马克龙：富人的总统？”是法国左倾报刊《解放报》（Libération）上周的封面标题。政府的挑战是：让雇主获得更多的自主权不是说让老板们遣散员工更容易，而是首先鼓励他们创造出更多的就业机会。

英文链接：https://www.economist.com/news/europe/21727994-bold-moves-new-leader-french-president-acts-his-promise-overhaul-jobs-laws