Whinging fools

The State owes me a job.

With good pay.

And a guarantee that the job is mine to keep, no matter how bad my performance might be.

And if I don't get one, the The State owes me generous welfare benefits.

And if I don't get it, then I'll march in protests, burn cars and attack police.

And if it means that my country and its economy sink slowly toward the third world, then so be it.

Fiery protests puts fear into French leaders
By Molly Moore

ABOUT 250,000 students have taken to the streets of Paris and major cities across France, escalating a political rebellion by the younger generation against a new labour law.
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Due to come into effect next month, it will make it easier to hire and fire young people at a time when the youth unemployment rate averages 23 per cent.

The protesters' anger focuses on provisions that will allow companies to fire employees under 26 at any time during their first two years of work, without cause.

"They're offering us nothing but slavery," said Maud Pottier, 17, a student at Jules Verne High School in Sartrouville, north of Paris.
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Business leaders complain that existing French labour laws make it virtually impossible to dismiss incompetent employees without giving them prohibitively costly severance packages.

As a result, the leaders say, many companies are either relying increasingly on temporary workers or not hiring at all.

Many economists blame the strict laws for the country's lifeless economy.

Comments

Anonymous said…
It's odd that you say this is a way to sink closer to the Third World.

In my view, the third world is characterised by a complete lack of workers' rights: where people get fired indiscriminately; where people work ridiculous hours in ridiculous conditions; and where people do not feel that there is any sense of job security.

It seems to me as if Australia is heading down that Third World path, not France.
19 March 2006 at 22:04
Anonymous said…
Absolute garbage...Australians are probably the most well-off people in the world. We are far from even becoming a "Third World Country". To claim such a thing shows what a spoilt shit you are.
21 March 2006 at 14:18
Anonymous said…
What an honour to be labelled a spoilt shit by someone who hasn't bothered argue the point I was making.

Third World countries generally have laws that favour the employer over the employee.

Hence steps towards diminishing workers' rights are steps taken on the Third World path.

Remember those IR laws Howard introduced? They dimished the rights of workers, and unlike France, you can't say the protests were of the same quality.
22 March 2006 at 22:20
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