The protests that have shaken France and rigidity in the labor market

PARIS - A man I know recently came to work and found that the company had hired a new employee; Not only that, they had also given his position. Shortly thereafter, he says, bosses cut the budget of his department and stopped answering their emails.

They relegated to suspect that infamous place in French companies known as her closet, or cabinet. Many workers have permanent contracts that hinder their dismissals. Therefore, some companies resort to an illegal strategy: try to make the employee work life is so miserable that end up quitting. "What follows is that I will lose my team and my staff and therefore no longer have anything to do," predicted man. "You still have to go every day to work, but without knowing why."

Here, labor laws are the main topic of conversation. The government has come into conflict with unions because of a bill that would facilitate, among other things, lay off employees when a company loses money. This week, a lack of votes, the proposal by decree forced through the National Assembly. If approved goes to the Senate, camera second reading.

It is obvious that the current system does not work. Proponents of the project argue that employers are reluctant to hire employees because time is very complicated and expensive to fire them when things go wrong. And in France, things are going very badly: unemployment reached 10 percent, almost double that in Germany and the UK. For young people reaching almost 24 percent. President Francois Hollande has said that only seek re-election next year if possible to reduce the unemployment rate year.

While other European countries have changed their labor law, France has changed very little in that regard. The legislation proposed by the government -modified after long negotiations-not alter that system in which workers can get a permanent contract, contrat à durée called indéterminée, known as CDI, or a temporary contract that can be renewed only once or twice . Almost all new jobs are governed by the latter.

However, unions not only oppose the initiative. Also disapproves 60 percent of the population, which fears that the proposal leave workers unprotected and at the same time, does not solve the problem of unemployment. There have been numerous protests and marches in defense of CDI. Most of the participants, young.

Why the French cling to a failed system?

To begin, in France a job is a basic right -Guaranteed in the preamble to its Constitution and think it easier to fire workers is an affront to the right. Without a CDI, it is considered that you are helpless against the indifferent forces of capitalism.

In a demonstration in Paris, some young men raised a banner with the warning that they were the "precarious generation". They are demonstrating in defense of the right to grow economically. As Jean Benoît Nadeau and Julie Barlow said in his new book "The Bonjour Effect", obtain a permanent labor contract is a rite of passage to adulthood. Without one, it is difficult to get a mortgage, a loan for a car or renting an apartment.

Conventional economic arguments do not work in this case. "They dismiss completely the basic facts of economic science," said Etienne Wasmer, a specialist in labor economics at Sciences Po. "People do not see that when you allow employers to take risks, hire more". Many French consider the workplace as a zero-sum battle between workers and bosses.

Economic debates are also formulated as political clashes. It is difficult to separate the opposition to the proposal of the opposition to President Hollande, whose popularity has plummeted to 14 percent. Not much help Hollande has been elected on a platform raised by "attacking the wealthy people" (remember the 75% tax on income?). In supporting the proposal, now it seems to be taking the side of employers.

The Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron, which has increasingly more popular and is also a reformist-but at least provides a coherent view of the world, said France needs young people who want to become billionaires.

Like my friend the cabinet, even those lucky enough to have CDI may have problems at work. According to one study, workers with CDI mentioned feeling more stress than those with temporary contracts, partly because they feel trapped in their jobs. After all, where else they would get another permanent contract?

Survey on Working Conditions in Europe next published, 12 percent of French respondents said they had been harassed or assaulted at work the previous month to respond to the survey, many more than in any other European country. IDUs not cause harassment for themselves, but make it more difficult to avoid. At least the problem is becoming apparent. Vice President of the French National Assembly resigned this week after being accused of sexually harassed women since 1998, a situation that denies. In response, hundreds of politicians and activists published a letter denouncing a culture of omerta, which is to shut up and go.

Independent of government actions, the workplace is becoming increasingly insecure. If competition with Uber unworthy the French taxi drivers, what will they do when they arrive autonomous vehicles? "The situation will not improve," said Jean Tirole, a Frenchman who in 2014 won the Nobel Prize in Economics. "The digital society increases the uncertainty surrounding the nature of work, so in the future companies will be even more reluctant to provide permanent jobs".

I do not want to confront capitalism while I'm helpless. But there must be a balance between being unemployed and being in the closet.