(en) France, Alternative Libertaire AL #239 - Florange law: Especially not change (fr, pt)

Election promise during the presidential campaign, said Florange law is supposed to 
prevent layoffs when buyers wish to pursue the activity. But this law does not offer 
anything more than vague measures, and thus will not change anything for employee-es. ---- 
We remember visiting the candidate Fran?ois Hollande on the ArcelorMittal Florange site, 
and his famous promise to the working men and women to prevent companies to close a site 
(considered "profitable" ...) when buyers exist . Two years to the day after the visit, 
the Parliament finally adopted the draft law to "restore outlook to the real economy and 
industrial employment." The abstention of the Left Front and the referral to the 
Constitutional Council by a hundred deputies and senators right symbolize this text: it 
calls into question anything, but concedes some mini-developments, tracing only for 
companies with more than thousand employee es some additional legal obligations.

Crumbs for employee-es

The case of ArcelorMittal was emblematic of some of the job cuts: a profitable site for 
buyers, but the willingness of the company to close rather than sell. Simultaneous second 
episode in 2012, the closure of PSA, which precipitates things for a bill, which will be 
called "Florange law."

The bill which was to be filed in late 2012 and be passed urgently, "within three months" 
according to Arnaud Montebourg, found herself placed in a box at the request of MEDEF. It 
comes up eventually at the same time that the law of "in-securing employment" after the 
National Interprofessional Agreement (ANI), a real social regression. A way for the 
government to give some crumbs ... in a law against job cuts which, as and months will be 
emptied of its contents. Only its current name has evolved to give "reclaim the real 
economy", like other name changes that have brought nothing either (like the Ministry of 
Productive Recovery).

In the end, Florange law, as originally defined, does not call into question the right of 
ownership but introduce additional control and new rights for employee-es, especially 
around the works council (EC). It will apply only to large companies, leaving hundreds of 
thousands of employee-es-es may be faced with this situation. State aid granted last two 
years may be required by local authorities. Better information should be given to the EC, 
this is vague, which will be able to use an expert formulation. The company will have 
three months to find a buyer. If it does not perform this step or refuses to do so, it may 
possibly be ordered to pay a penalty of up to twenty monthly minimum wage per job go 
deleted within 2% of sales to the fullest. Goodyear, ArcerlorMittal Petroplus, etc.. will 
be able to reproduce, with some additional costs for employers, without concern. The 
promise unfulfilled, also doubles as a continuous and even current attack against the 
representative institutions, including a new step was cohosh in the statement of 
conclusion of the pact responsibility.

The law emptied of its contents

Ultimately, the Constitutional Council, on a referral from MPs and senators right, 
continued to empty the few remaining content of this law. On March 27, he found "contrary 
to the freedom of enterprise and property rights" measures for the disposal of a business 
if takeover bid: there will be no penalty if a company refuses to give a website a buyer. 
Finally, the Constitutional Council has also censored the penalties that should be imposed 
on companies refusing to comply with the obligation to seek or buyers. In short, there 
really is nothing left in this legislation.

CFDT Florange welcomed the law, even if it was in the fight before the CFDT delegate 
Edouard Martin seduced by the lure of a PS electoral list. FO reservations noting the 
possibility that "circumvention", the most vivid and legitimate reactions have been issued 
by the CGT and Solidarity. The first "claims the increased presence of employees in the 
boards of directors, supervisory committees remuneration and audit areas of strategic 
interventions companies with the same rights as other members", while state a "suspensive 
veto EC" . A position long advocated by the Trade Union Solidarity. Recalling that the 
commercial courts are a real tool employers, where advocacy is absent employee-es.

RoberK (AL Montreuil)