French workers riot over a new Law that USA workers would love

The French have passed a law to take effect April 1, 2006 that allows employers to fire workers for “no cause” within two years, if the workers are under 26 years of age (links and excerpts below).

We can’t appreciate the French system here in the USA.

In the USA, our workers suffer under a system known as the At Will Employment Rule (link goes to an artilce about At Will Employment on my legal website).

Under the At Will Rule, in the USA, workers can be fired at ANY TIME for “no cause” or “without good cause”.

But even in the USA, we have “Wrongful Terminations”

Just to be clear, even in the USA some terminations are indeed Wrongful.

If you read the linked article about Wrongful Terminations, you will learn that a termination can become legally wrongful sometimes, depending on the motivation behind the termination.

But a termination merely at the convenience of the employer, or “without good cause”, is not enough to make a termination wrongful in the USA. Apparently, that IS enough in France to make a termination wrongful. And the French are rioting because their protections are being weakened for the young.

Wow, if we here in the USA had such good protection against willy-nilly termination as exists in France, even under the new law, there would be a lot fewer unhappy people.

NY Times - French Youth Riot over new Labor Law

(See also this Reuters piece - French Youth Riot)

Students joined forces with teachers, workers, retirees, opposition politicians and labor union leaders in more than 150 cities and towns throughout France on Saturday in the largest nationwide protest against the government’s new youth labor law.

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The protesters want the abolition of a new law — known as the First Employment Contract and set to take effect in April — that allows employers to fire new workers under the age of 26 without cause for two years.

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Protesters point out that the law was pushed through Parliament without debate and charge that it is age discrimination. They have dubbed the law the “Kleenex contract” because young workers could be discarded like a facial tissue.

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