“Irony” is a much-abused word in modern journalism. All sorts of happenings are described as ‘ironic’ or ‘ironical’ when a more appropriate epithet might be paradoxical — or even just ‘surprising’.
In the case of the riots now taking place in France however, the word ‘ironic’ seems most apposite. The main bone of contention voiced by the rioters is that the proposed new law would enable employers to fire young members of the work force in their first two year’s of employment without offering so much as an explanation.
The irony lies in the fact that the ostensible object of the new labor law on which Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin appears to have staked his reputation is to encourage businesses to hire people young people, not fire them.
Unemployment among the under 25s in France is more than 20 percent according to figures from the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The riots before Christmas in the banlieux (suburbs) of Paris and other major cities drew attention to the high levels of youth unemployment — indeed to even more horrific unemployment statistics of upward of 30 and even 40 percent in certain areas.
Here we come to another irony. Although what politicians, officials and economists euphemistically describe as “labor market reform” has been on agendas in France for some time, it was those pre-Christmas riots that prompted de Villepin into action. In other words, reforms precipitated by riots have led to further riots.
For the labor market reformers the theory is all too simple. “Insiders” — those already in employment — are well protected by existing legislation. So well protected in fact that “outsiders” — new entrants to what is (again euphemistically) descried as the “labor force” — are in practice discriminated against. The aim of the latest reform is to encourage employers to take on more staff without fearing that they will be lumbered indefinitely with high social insurance costs and be unable to make them redundant should things go wrong in their business.
But for the potential new workers, and indeed, to judge from the sheer scale of the riots, the desirable purpose of creating more jobs is swamped by the fear that this is yet another move by “them” to tread on the “workers”. In an age when globalization is already seen to be threatening jobs, there is an added sense of insecurity when governments, however well intentioned, go out of their way to strengthen the hand of the employer vis-a-vis the worker. It is, as they say, no coincidence that these riots follow so soon on the result of the French referendum on the proposed European Constitutional Treaty last May when fears of globalization and resistance to “neo-liberal” or “Anglo-Saxon” economics figures very prominently in the list of French civilization’s discontents.
Such discontents are understandable, just as is suspicion of the French government’s (and employers’) true motives. Economists may argue that globalization lifts all the boats in the economic ocean and benefits everyone. But they increasingly have had to admit that it is not everyone who benefits, and there are undoubted losers.
Which brings us to another irony — or perhaps it is a paradox. Most of the world envies the European standard of living and levels of social protection, but European legislators behave increasingly as though that a high standard of living is threatened by competition from — well, most of the world.
