The EconomistJuly 22nd 2017 Business 532
Soul tradersWho you gonna call?
F
OR A man poised for combat with evil
spirits, Philippe Moscato looks re-
markably at ease. In casual clothes and
chatting about the tools of his trade—a
“Vogel” crystal, compass, steel crucifix,
pendulum and bag of salt from Jerusa-
lem—he says he can deliver unreal re-
sults. Hired to exorcise an apartment in a
wealthy district of central Paris, he pre-
dicts that the air will change. In the win-
ter, he says, the owners will no longer
need their central heating, the result of
beneficial vibrations.
Mr Moscato’s work involves first
waggling a pendulum, supposedly to
assess the flat’s readiness, then lighting a
candle, reciting from an exorcism man-
ual, before blessing salty water that he
splashesin every room. As he sprinkles,
he delivers a flow of incantations. For an
hour’s work he pockets €155 ($178). He has
requests three or four times a week to
de-spook property, and exorcises a per-
son on average once a week. Paris, Lyon
and the French Riviera are the areas most
contaminated by bad spirits, he says.
Demand for ghostbusting fluctuates.
Following terrorist attacks in France and
Belgium, late in 2015 and early in 2016,
respectively, Mr Moscato said he had “an
incredible avalanche” of requests.
Alessandra Nucci, a writer on Catho-
lic affairs, says that there are more and
more “independent operators” like Mr
Moscato in Europe. The church has ne-
glected exorcisms for a long time, she
says, despite strong demand from the
public for them. There are some 100
exorcist priests licensed by the church in
France, according to the International
Association of Exorcists in Rome, but
most are inactive.
Another independent operator, Gré-
gory Noel, makes a speciality of exorcis-
ing farms. For up to €500 a pop, JeanClément provides a ceremony to release
harmful “waves”. A third, Jean de Para-
col, in southern France, markets a service
to help small businesses that have been
blighted by black magic. Gabriel Des-
préaux, near to Paris, says he has prac-
tised for decades but only started charg-
ing a fee two years ago. He now works as
many as 15 hours a day dealing with
clients. In a good month hisbusiness is
generating €12,000 before tax.
What might explain rising demand?
Television programmes that depict exor-
cism, notably imports from America such
as Fox’s “The Exorcist”, may play a part.
The relative ease of finding practitioners
online is also a factor. Word-of-mouth
recommendations from satisfied custom-
ers matter, too. The owner of the Paris
apartment is reluctant to say if her experi-
ment helped to improve the air. “The
whole thing is freakish, butjust by believ-
ing, it might make a difference,” she says.
Then, as Mr Moscato leaves, a sunbeam
suddenly lights up her apartment.PARIS
The Catholic church has left a big gap in the exorcism marketworking hours, eases restrictions on part-
time work, relaxes how workers can divvy
up their holidays and cutsthe statutory
lunch hour to 30 minutes. It also scraps
dues that all employees must pay to their
company’s designated union, regardless of
whether or not they are members. Just as
important, collective agreements between
employers and workers will overrule
many of the labour code’s provisions.
Once the new rules take effect in four
months’ time, they will be valid for exist-
ing employment contracts, not justnew
ones. Mr Temer hopes they will dent Bra-
zil’s unemployment rate, stuck above 13%
after a three-year recession.
Bosses are ecstatic about the changes.
The National Confederation ofIndustry
said that the reform represents “longed-for
progress”. Banco Santander, a Spanish-
owned bank, said it reckons the reform
could eventually lead to the creation of
2.3m new jobs.
Small firms also have much to gain. The
new rules “formalise what we now do in-
formally”, enthuses a São Paulo caterer.
The “bank” of actual hours worked by her
cooks and waiters, necessary in a business
where inflexible nine-to-five contracts
make little sense, will now be legal. An ex-
ecutive at a European multinational says
that an unofficial spreadsheet that keeps
track of his employees’ real time off, which
he confesses to maintainingalongside an
official tally of employees’ annual 30 vaca-
tion days, can also be consigned to the
dustbin. (The old law said that leave had to
be split into at most two segments, with
one holiday lasting at least 20 days.)
Such ruses have been common in Bra-
zilian workplaces, but are risky. Employees
who leave or are laid off regularly sue em-
ployers over the slightest of transgressions
of the labour code, spurred on by litigious
lawyers. Last year Brazil’s labour courts
heard nearly 4m cases (see chart), mostly
brought by aggrieved workers. Fines levied
on firms totalled 24bn reais ($7bn).
The reform ought to reduce such legal
risks, which can afflict firms whether they
observe the rules or not. Gabriel Margu-
lies, whose company, UnderMe, produces50,000 pairs of undergarments a month,
says he will atlast be able to grant requests
to staff who would prefer, say, to go home
early in exchange for a shorter lunch break.
Until now he has declined for fear of losing
in court. That has notstopped former em-
ployees from suing in the hope that Brazil’s
famously worker-friendly judges side with
them. Even unsuccessful suits are an un-
welcome distraction from running a busi-
ness, Mr Margulies laments.
Maurício Guidi of Pinheiro Neto, a firm
of lawyers, observes that the reform might
even change this confrontational work-
place culture into a more consensual one.But it remains to be seen how the labour
unions will react, notes Marcelo Silva, vice-
chairman of Magazine Luiza, a big retailer.
The main union confederations have con-
demned the reform. They fume about the
loss of revenue from dues. To placate them,
Mr Temer has hinted he may amend the re-
form by decree, which is subject to a sim-
ple up-or-down vote in Congress, in order
to phase out the obligatory dues gradually
(and possibly water down some other pro-
visions). But he cannot go too far. The only
way for the scandal-hit president to keep
his job may be to help some of his 13.8m
unemployed compatriots find work. 7Labour painsSource: Pinheiro Neto AdvogadosBrazil, labour lawsuits, m012342011 12 13 14 15 16New cases Rulings