Paris strikes and chaos

Paris, Strikes and mayhem May 26th 2016 The 35-hour week remains in place, but as an average. Firms can negotiate with local trade unions on more or fewer hours from week to week, up to a maximum of 46 hours Firms are given greater freedom to reduce pay The law eases conditions for laying off workers (much needed), strongly regulated in France. It is hoped companies will take on more people if they know they can shed jobs in case of a downturn The above is taken the BBC website and is more or less correct. Here in France employers are very restricted when it comes to firing a useless employee. And they can be held to ransom when their shiny new employee turns out to be not so shiny. I think the French workers do ok overall compared to other European countries. The average number of hours worked is higher than the statutory limit - 37.5 hours a week in 2014, in the UK they average 36.1 hours a week and in Germany 35.3 hours per week. And the French love their holidays and long weekends! On average the French have 30 days a year of paid leave, compared with 28 in the UK, 25 in Norway and Denmark, and 20 in Germany. France's annual average wage in 2014 - 38,885€ - compared favorably with Germany's - 39,479€ the UK workers win out at 44,350€ approx. The strikers believe that unless they go all out and use extreme measures (as they are) the government won’t listen to them. The countries tourism sector has been badly hit since the Charlie Hebdo and November 13th attacks with some hotels claiming up to 60% of a drop in business for the same period last year. This action is making life miserable for those (myself) who have to travel by car or train to work every day. I do not agree with them! I want to work and I agree that employers should be able to hire and fire more easily. I’ve had colleagues in the past that I wanted to fire myself! So today I went to the Bastille to see the start of the protest. It made for good entertainment and interesting photos. The atmosphere was festive, lots of food stalls of course, music and people shouting into megaphones. Anyone entering into place de la Bastille with a bag was stopped and searched. Futile. I took photos just to show the types that were in the march. They were young and old, scruffy and elegant, skinny and not so skinny but for the most part I couldn’t see a real hooligan element to it. I wasn’t looking very closely obviously. Who once said, “a mob has many heads but no brains”?