France's Labor Laws Should Protect People, Not Jobs

French President Emmanuel Macron’s efforts to loosen the country’s labor code are innovative and welcome. They might help attract more investment. But if France truly wants to reconcile the interests of companies and workers, it also needs a different kind of reform -- one focused on protecting people, not jobs.

Macron’s plan increases legal penalties for “wrongful” dismissals, while curbing the ability of courts to grant workers even greater compensation. This is the right approach; the problem with France’s severance payments is not their formal level, but the protracted (often years-long) court process that follows many dismissals and eventually yields random outcomes. The plan also gives companies more power to negotiate hours and pay; it aims at easing the bureaucratic pain for multinationals as well as firms with fewer than 50 employees.