Thursday, March 30, 2006

Rhino75's rant Part II

Following on from Monday's rant, might I suggest you read this article, dear reader? Of course, we all know you can prove anything with statistics but I think it highlights some interesting points about French attitudes to free enterprise. (Gulp!)
(With thanks to FrenchBenj for bringing it to my attention.)

9 comments:

Rob7534 said...

Arg! You're assigning homework now?

Wow, according to that article, Chinia is more Freemarket than the USA?

Unknown said...

Rhino, this kind of thinking is unheard of. I'm not sure how I would feel with the uncertainty of being canned that easily. It leaves too much room for the unknown. I really don't understand it. Maybe I'm a little dense but it just doesn't make sense to me. But at the same time. it can really only effect those that are not good workers and were previously protected by french law concerning firing and fair work practice. Am I right or not rhino?

rhino75 said...

Well not quite, Babs. The purpose of posting that article was to show French attitudes to the Free market. It doesn't go into detail about the new contract, which includes such clauses as "Notice of layoff shall be 2 weeks if employment was between 2 and 5 months, one month if employment was over 5 months" and "Severance shall be 8% of gross pay for the employment period" - so not quite as harsh as it sounds, then. There are also clauses about training etc. for anyone laid off. Basically, the contract is pretty unshocking to anyone familiar with US and UK work practices.

Unknown said...

Do you think this is a good thing? You have put it more in to perspective for me but then why all the protest?

rhino75 said...

I don't think it's great, by a long chalk, but I do think it's worth a try and certainly not as dreadful as the protesters make out. And I'm really not some gung-ho "lunch is for wimps" Wall Street wannabe. Honest! Anyway, the president is going on TV this evening to address the nation on this very subject (can you believe it?).

rhino75 said...

Soooo, the government is going ahead with the new law, but the president is insisting on two changes: firstly, the length of the contract will be cut to one year from two; and secondly, the reason for dismissal will be stated. Both of these are changes suggested by the French employers' federation, if I'm not mistaken. We'll see what happens next...

Unknown said...

Rhino, that makes more sense to me, the way you put it,thanks,xoxo!

Gillian Young said...

Are you that wild man I keep running into who stays out drinking until 4am?

rhino75 said...

Haha! I am that very same, "Gillian"!!