In the meantime the companies they tinker

It is a small sign of spring in a landscape affected: companies are reluctant to wield the axe for the dismissal. The words may seem provocative in a France where the number of unemployed rising 2,000 to 3,000 each day. But if industrial production decreased by 10 in one year, employment in industry has declined "as" 2 (figures of late 2008, the last published). And many companies are trying to do otherwise. Partial unemployment compensation to 100 PSA or Renault, recourse to a "total partial unemployment" oxymoresque, operation at bottom of working time reduction tools envisaged for example with Safran, ready employees by Rhodia, premiums on sabbatical for a year or two in Air France... Initiatives are too numerous to be isolated accidents. It something happening in the world of employment.

Of course, some leaders do not hesitate to close plants and lay off hundreds of employees. But these decisions have nothing to do with the current crisis. Or, to be more precise, the crisis has been that precipitate calendar, much like the heat wave of 2003 had advanced a few weeks or a few months the deaths of thousands of frail elderly. In many other businesses, the reality is quite different. Term contracts and temporary workers are certainly rarely renewed by days. But, beyond that, the first priority is to maintain the link with employees.

Why Simply because leaders want to avoid the repetition of the past. During the 1975 recession, firms had responded neither fast enough nor strong enough. They maintained their strength at the expense of profits. At the time, they have carved out their investments lost competitiveness and therefore markets. It took then more than a decade to make up lost ground. At the time, during the recession of 1993, they have cut employment. And when the activity is distributed, they have lost markets... without arms! It is not relive the humiliating moment they strive today for new solutions.

This stretch of the social imagination is commendable in a country which is often. However, it is a second-best solution. As businesses come to of such crafts, funded as far as possible on public funds, because the dismissal is a final rupture. In the United States, Boeing regularly rehiring employees that he thanked a little earlier or commands. It is unimaginable in France. When the link is broken, it is forever. And it is logical, because failure is very expensive. The employee leaving traumatized. At the company, both in time, money and uncertainty individual dismissal four ends before the labor, with deadlines that are then in months or years.

If the dismissal is so expensive, it is because the French model is based on the idea that it must do everything to avoid it. In this design, the preservation of the use of today goes before the emergence of tomorrow's jobs. And this is consistent with first funded by contributions and not by the tax of social protection (social contributions levy in France a portion of GDP one-third higher than the average European). Such a model could be adapted from the time of heavy industry, full employment, closed borders. It is now in bankruptcy, socially (it is deeply unfair) and financially (it is deeply deficit). The priority today is to give both more flexibility to companies and more than security to employees, to finally go to the famous "flexisecurity" which underpinned the left such as the right in the last presidential election. This change there fell into the oblivion of the crisis, while crisis makes it even more necessary. In the meantime, the companies they tinker. It is time that the social imagination is also the rulers of this country and the social partners.