The Economist - USA (2020-05-16)

40 TheEconomistMay 16th 2020

1

O

n the estuaryof the river Seine in

Normandy, the Renault factory at San-

douville lies silent and empty. Usually, the

1,900 workers at this plant turn out 132,000

vehicles a year, mostly delivery vans. But

on May 7th a court in Le Havre ordered Re-

nault not to reopen fully as planned on May

11th, when France began its déconfinement,

or emergence from lockdown. It upheld a

complaint brought by the Confédération

Générale du Travail, a union with historical

links to the Communist Party, that the firm

had not followed procedure for consulting

employees about reopening. Pending an

appeal, the factory remains shut.

After eight weeks of confinement,

France was supposed to resume work this

week. Forms for permission to pop to the

shops have been binned. Public transport

was running at 75% of normal in Paris, with

masks compulsory. Hairdressers, clothes

shops, bookstores and all other com-

merce—except restaurants and cafés—

were allowed to reopen. Some primary-

school pupils returned to class. It was “es-

sential” for the economy to get going again,

said Bruno Le Maire, the finance minister.

Much of the complexity of organising

this is not unique to France. The sourcing

of masks, the spacing of seats on public

transport or in classrooms, the distribu-

tion of hand gel in shops and offices: these

problems are shared by all countries exit-

ing lockdown. Yet, as the court decision

against Renault shows, France also faces

some quite specific difficulties.

One is the adversarial nature of labour

relations, combined with the French state’s

enduring appetite for bureaucracy. Unions

enjoy an entrenched role through manda-

tory works councils. President Emmanuel

Macron simplified these, and merged even

more tangled former structures into a sin-

gle comité social et économique. But firms

with over ten employees still have to hold

monthly or bi-monthly meetings, partly to

discuss issues concerning employee well-

being. Talks are often long, and testy.

In preparing déconfinement, bosses re-

port vastly more such consultations. The

director of a services firm in the Paris re-

gion says that he has spent a full day each

week on discussions to prepare for the re-

turn of just ten employees (out of 95) to the

office. The government has produced a 20-

page “national déconfinement protocol”,

with guidelines on how, for instance, to

calculate the new minimum workspace per

employee (four square metres). “It’s really

complicated,” says Jérôme, who runs a

hairdressing salon. He has had to take out

five of the 12 seats in his salon and says each

haircut—much in demand after eight

weeks—is taking an extra 15 minutes be-

cause of the time it takes to disinfect

things. The price of not applying the rules

can be high. The court ruled against Re-

nault partly because the firm had organ-

ised a works-council meeting by email

rather than, as the rules state, by post.

Furthermore, both company bosses and

elected officials are criminally liable while

in their jobs. Just five months ago a court

France leaves lockdown

Free at last

PARIS

But now the arguing begins

En route, slowly

Paris congestion, increase in travel time

compared with uncongested conditions, %

Source:TomTom

80

60

40

20

0

May

98765 10 11 12

2019

2020

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