How Labour’s new plan for workers will embolden unions and could turn UK into a French-style cauldron of riots & strikes
EVEN in a country used to trade union protest and paralysis, the past few years in France have been incredibly chaotic.
The economy has stagnated, and disturbances and even riots have broken out.
Who can forget the way the Gilets Jaunes, the infamous Yellow Vests, brought major cities, including Paris, to a halt, causing millions of pounds worth of damage?
Regularly at protests you can see the red flags of the unions flying high above the tear gas, and on all the picket lines during nationwide strikes.
Such chaos is certainly worth considering as Britain faces up to the prospect of its first Labour government in more than a decade.
Opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer and his deputy, Angela Rayner, have committed to introducing a so-called New Deal for Working People — one that sounds decidedly French.
It would increase the power of highly politicised employees campaigning to prioritise personal rights over company profits.
Short-term measures designed to stimulate the labour market and to get more young people active, such as zero-hour contracts, would be banned.
Companies would not be allowed to fire unproductive staff to replace them with efficient ones, either.
Regular hours would be guaranteed for three months or more, even for unproductive workers, including those who never turn up.
As in France, everybody would be allowed to switch off all links to the office as soon as they go home.
This would mean not answering phone calls or email messages, despite the demands of the 24-hour global economy.
All of these new rules would be written down.
French companies currently have to study 400,000 regulations, explained in 23,000 pages of official documents.
Some in Labour appear to know only too well that such measures would be a disaster for bosses, hence persistent rumours of a U-turn or watering down of plans.
But it was this week confirmed by Sir Keir and his frontbench team at a meeting with the union barons that they will be pressing ahead after all.
Rather than ditch the New Deal policy they are instead said to just be looking at giving it a new name which might be more voter friendly.
As Tory Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch said: “Labour wants to copy French-style employment laws, imposing regulations that would make our efforts in revoking excessive EU red tape since Brexit redundant.”
‘Sales plummeted’
By ploughing on, Labour is refusing to take note of the situation in France, despite Sir Keir meeting President Emmanuel Macron in Paris last year.
Mr Macron could explain how 55,492 companies were forced to close in his country because of bankruptcy in 2023, according to figures provided by the Bank of France.
This was the worst number for closures for six years, and highlighted how difficult life is for entrepreneurs in the country that invented the word.
Nelly Bouet, a 42-year-old mother of five who runs a restaurant in Vichy, central France, said: “I work hard to try and get by, but it is getting tiresome working just to survive.”
She pays herself less than the monthly minimum wage in France, which is €1,767 gross, the equivalent of £1,516.
Ms Bouet said “sales have plummeted”, and “I no longer have any employees”.
Enormous state spending ensures lavish welfare provision, a 35-hour week, numerous work breaks, including a very long one at lunchtime, and the whole of July or August off, but it is unsustainable.
Beyond the thousands of companies going bankrupt and the non-stop strikes, the cost of living has shot up along with tax rates.
Youth unemployment in many parts of France, and particularly out-of-town council estates, is sitting at around 17 per cent.
A report by the Senate, the upper house of the French parliament, estimates that red tape costs the EU’s second-biggest economy €84billion (£72billion) a year, or three per cent of output.
In the words of France’s Finance Minister, Bruno Le Maire: “Too much regulation runs the risk of leaving the European economy trailing behind China and the United States.”
Beyond the bureaucracy, all employers in France have to face up to the constant threat of trade union-led strike action, the kind that would become very popular in the UK if Labour gets into power.
Binmen, transport workers, medical staff and even the police are among the many public sector workers who have threatened to strike during the Paris Olympics this summer.
Sophie Binet, of the powerful General Confederation of Labour said: “The government has to pay if it wants things to go well.
“The Olympics are meant to boost France’s image, so money has to be provided to compensate workers.”
Some 16million visitors from all over the world are expected in France for the event, which is costing upwards of £8billion, so disruption would be an unmitigated disaster.
President Macron’s administration has offered bonuses of up to £1,200 to try to stop people from striking, but they are already being described as bribes.
Unions also argue that employees are worn out by low wages and poor working conditions, and they would much rather take their holidays in July and August.
Thanks to the power of unions with relatively small memberships — often only around ten per cent of workers in any given sector will actually join — they can hold the government to ransom.
‘Fog of uncertainty’
François-Xavier Arouls, of the Solidarity transport union that covers the Paris Metro underground service, said: “If they pay us correctly, we will be there and help make the country proud during the Games.
“Rail workers are no longer willing to make sacrifices for what the government says is the greater good.”
The CGT has already filed official strike notices for the two months covering the Olympics.
Bernard Thibault, head of the CGT, said: “It’s not fair to leave people in a fog of uncertainty with the Games so close at hand.”
The same kind of fog might well be clouding Mr Starmer and Ms Rayner’s judgment about what will happen to Britain if they empower the trade unions.
Another visit to the cauldron of riots, strikes and small business failure that is modern France might well put them right.