MEDEF summer conference reiterates opposition to 35-hour week legislation
Publikováno: 27 September 1999
At its first summer conference, held in early September 1999, France's MEDEF employers' organisation examined the major questions facing French society and restated its opposition to legislation implementing the 35-hour working week.
Download article in original language : FR9909109NFR.DOC
At its first summer conference, held in early September 1999, France's MEDEF employers' organisation examined the major questions facing French society and restated its opposition to legislation implementing the 35-hour working week.
In less than two years, the main French employers' organisation has: elected a new president following major internal divisions (FR9712188N); changed its name from the National Council of French Employers (Conseil national du patronat français, CNPF) to the Movement of French Enterprises (Mouvement des entreprises de France, MEDEF) (FR9811140F); and made major alterations to its internal structure. The latest step in the organisation's restructuring drive was its very first summer conference, held at the HEC (Hautes études commerciales) Business School campus in Jouy-en-Josas on 2-4 September 1999. This was an expression of MEDEF's desire to improve its policy-making, involve other groups - such as journalists, intellectuals, or even trade unionists - in the process, and play a more direct role in public debate.
Around 1,000 participants, including 700 heads of companies, took part in MEDEF's summer conference, which involved 12 workshops and three plenary sessions covering all the major issues in society. A debate entitled "Creating a winning France" (Faire gagner la France), involving the leaders of the major trade unions, was the conference event which received the most media attention. Marc Blondel (CGT-FO), Alain Deleu (CFTC), Maryse Dumas (CGT) and Michel Jalmain (CFDT) locked horns at the podium with Ernest-Antoine Seillière, president of MEDEF. Their exchanges were frank and even very heated, as fundamental differences still exist between the unions and employers over their own roles and those of the government.
Overall, MEDEF categorically restated its positions, in particular its opposition to the reduction of the statutory working week being implemented by the government. At the close of the conference, MEDEF decided to organise on 4 October a major rally against the forthcoming second 35-hour week law (FR9906190F), jointly with the General Confederation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (Confédération générale des petites et moyennes entreprises, CGPME).
Eurofound doporučuje citovat tuto publikaci následujícím způsobem.
Eurofound (1999), MEDEF summer conference reiterates opposition to 35-hour week legislation, article.
