ECONOMIC AND LABOR REFORMS THAT WILL CHANGE THE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PARIS 001513 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON EIND EINV ETRD ELAB PGOV FR SUBJECT: ECONOMIC AND LABOR REFORMS THAT WILL CHANGE THE FRENCH ECONOMY NOT FOR INTERNET DISTRIBUTION Summary -------------- ¶1. (SBU) The French National Assembly has adopted four key economic and labor reforms that will ease many services and labor market constraints, boost purchasing power, promote entrepreneurship, and allow individual firms to negotiate overtime hours with their employees. The fours laws in question -- Law on the Modernization of the Economy, Law on the Modernization of the Labor Market, Law on Social Democracy and Work Time Reform, and Law on the Rights and Duties of Jobseekers Q are touchstones of the Sarkozy reform program and should boost French competitiveness over the long term. End summary. LME: Easing restrictions on product and services market -------------- -------------- ¶2. (SBU) The French National Assembly on July 9 adopted the Law on the Modernization of the Economy (LME). The law includes many of the recommendations on improving retail competitiveness proposed by the Commission on Economic Growth, chaired by former EBRD President Jacques Attali. The LME introduces greater flexibility in the retail market by liberalizing restrictions on price negotiations between suppliers and retailers, originally designed to protect small retailers. Together with an earlier reform which legalized below-cost selling, the GOF claims the LME will lower retail prices by some two percent. Economy and Employment Minister Christine Lagarde stated the reforms could represent a gain of 1,000 Euros in purchasing power per year for every French household. The draft law also lifted zoning restrictions for retail establishments of up to 1,000 square meters. However, this provision was amended by Senate to keep in place the 300 square meter threshold in towns of more than 15,000 inhabitants. (Comment: September elections to renew a third of the Senate undoubtedly influenced this move. French Senators are elected by local authorities, who want to keep their powers to veto big- box retailers. End comment.) To further these retail reforms, the LME merges FranceQs two existing competition regulators into a new, more powerful single authority. LME: Improving the business environment -------------- ¶3. (SBU) The other key aim of the bill is to promote entrepreneurship. The LME allows employees and retirees to become self-employed entrepreneurs without paying registration fees or taxes, provided sales do not exceed a limit to be determined in a later decree. It further introduces a maximum 60-day statutory limit for payment terms, and encourages growth by firms with less than 10 employees by reducing taxes and payroll taxes on additional employees. The LME also institutes a French- style Small Business Act that will reserve a 15 percent share of public procurement for innovative firms that invest a to-be-determined minimum amount in research and development. LME: Other measures -------------- ¶4. (SBU) Other notable features in the LME include: -- the end of the postal system monopoly on the so- called Livret A state-administered savings account (Note: A regular IMF Article IV recommendation for improving FranceQs financial sector efficiency. End note); -- the development of high-speed internet access through fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) networks from 2012; -- a more favorable income tax regime for foreign professional workers assigned to France (QimpatriatesQ). Among other changes, this regime applies not only to employees sent to France by their foreign employer, but also to individuals recruited directly by a French employer from abroad. The GOFQs second economic reform package since last summerQs major tax reform bill, the LME will require over 120 implementing decrees and come into force on January 1, 2009. Lifting Labor Market Restrictions -------------- ¶5. (SBU) On July 24, French parliamentarians approved a path-breaking bill on QSocial Democracy and Work time ReformQ which opened up the possibility for employers and PARIS 00001513 002 OF 002 employees to set overtime and compensatory time arrangements on a firm-by-firm basis, rather than through national agreements. This effectively ends the 35-hour weekly work limit by allowing company agreements to depart from national agreements and/or the 35 hour work- week law. ¶6. (SBU) At the same time, the new law reinforces Qsocial democracyQ by ending the virtual monopoly of FranceQs five major unions on labor negotiations. Elections will determine the weight of a union in the workplace, and more than 10 percent of the vote will be required for an organization to be able to represent employees and negotiate agreements. A company-level agreement becomes applicable to all employees if approved by 30 percent (and not opposed by over 50 percent) of the workforce. These new rules allow companies to negotiate an increase in the number of overtime hours, with a cap of 405 hours each year. These hours will be paid an additional 25 percent or 50 percent per hour (depending on various factors),and companies will not pay payroll taxes on the overtime hours. ¶7. (SBU) The Law on the Modernization of the Labor Market, for its part, introduces the possibility of terminating an employment contract by mutual consent. This measure should help reduce the number of challenges to dismissals brought before labor courts, a major headache for French employers. A Law on the Rights and Duties of Jobseekers completes the labor market reform. Jobseekers will be cut off from unemployment benefits if they turn down more than two QreasonableQ job offers. The law is accompanied by the merger of the national employment agency (ANPE) with the unemployment benefits agencies (UNEDIC). The new merged group aims to provide better guidance to jobseekers, as well as better access to training. The merger is also designed to reduce the potential for fraudulent unemployment claims. Comment -------------- ¶8. (SBU) The economic and labor reforms approved by Parliament during its extraordinary July session will help create a more dynamic French economy over the long term. Critics of the Sarkozy government accurately point out that the measures do not lift all major constraints weighing on the French economy. The LME does not liberalize some of FranceQs most coddled professions, such as notaries or pharmacists, and the Law on Social Democracy and Work time Reform does not altogether scrap the statutory 35-hour work week. However, from shaking up supplier/retailer relations to prying open the labor market, the reforms break with a number of shibboleths and open the way for more change. Whether due to a political opposition in disarray, the summer doldrums, or what critics call Qlegislative proliferationQ (42 government reform bills have been pushed through the National Assembly since last October) having overwhelmed the body politic, the Sarkozy government has managed to set important change in motion with barely a squeak from the French street. Stapleton