From today's IHT:

Even before Chirac's promised changes to the law, the measure represented more of an alignment of legislation to reality than a serious change in the way things are done.

Under existing employment law, employees hired on permanent contracts are given a maximum trial period of six months, after which they gain extensive rights to appeal against their dismissal. But companies regularly hire young people on short-term contracts of two weeks to two years instead to avoid giving them the full benefits and job protections due permanent employees.

Short-term contracts, however, cause employers other problems: They are meant for hiring temporary replacement workers or to fill short-term jobs, and employers can only offer the same employee two such contracts in a row.

The CPE was intended to give employers a simpler and more legally sound way of hiring young workers on a trial basis without immediately exposing companies to the cumbersome and costly benefits and protections that make hiring and firing in France such a daunting enterprise.

But young people and the unions argue that the government should protect workers from the abuse of short-term contracts, not make it easier for employers to hire for short periods of time.

Now you, like us, may be asking, Is this so radical that France needs to be turned upside-down? Contrary to what the anti-CPE would have you believe, the CPE is not beyond the pale of current French labor practices. And as we noted earlier, an employer cannot fire a CPE employee in contravention of protections extant in French labor law. For example a young CPE mother-to-be cannot be fired because of her pregnancy.

If labor contracts with less protections and shorter probations than the CPE already exist and are widely used, then why has the CPE, arguably an improvement, brought out the mob?

Here's one Frenchman's opinion:

HEAD OF SORBONNE ATTACKS 'IGNORANT' STUDENT PROTESTERS

PARIS April 3, 2006 (Guardian) - "I'm very angry about the demagogy, the ignorance and the stupidity of the young and of the French," said Dr [Jean-Robert] Pitte, 56, a geography professor who has taught at Oxford and Cambridge and holds the Légion d'honneur.

"Today's youth don't have dreams, they have illusions. To dream is to want to accomplish something difficult that is a challenge. Instead youngsters believe they have a right to everything and if things don't go the way they want it's someone else's fault."

Dr Pitte...blamed "irresponsible" public debate for stoking the violence. "They say: Oh, these poor students! Of course they have a right to an open-ended work contract! It's absurd," he told Le Point. "Who is going to tell these youngsters the truth? Get real." He added that tens of thousands of students were taking degrees in subjects with no relevance to the employment market but were then demanding jobs linked to their studies.

"I know people will say I'm a horrible reactionary but I'm very angry about the ignorance and the stupidity not just of youngsters but of the French because we have the youth we deserve."

The Sorbonne, which was at the centre of the celebrated student unrest of May 1968, has been closed and sealed off for weeks after riot police ejected students occupying buildings. An estimated million euros (£700,000) of damage has been done to the university on Paris's left bank

And this closer from Dr. Pitte:

We give the impression of a country that doesn't understand the world. I'm ashamed of my country.

[Hat tip: ¡No Pasarán!]

And we had thought it was only us.

PFFT (What is this?): Radical baloney 5 | Rayonnement français 0