El Khomri law

The projet de loi visant à instituer de nouvelles libertés et de nouvelles protections pour les entreprises et les actifs (draft legislation aimed at implementing new freedoms and protections for businesses and workers) is a piece of draft legislation in France, first presented on 17 February 2016 by labour minister Myriam El Khomri under the Second Valls Government. It is commonly known as the El Khomri law or the Loi travail.

The legislation would revise France's Labour Code with the aim of making the country's labour market more flexible; the government claims that this will reduce unemployment. Among the changes set out in the legislation, the new labour code would make it easier for companies to lay off workers, would reduce overtime payments for hours worked beyond France's statutory 35-hour workweek, and would reduce severance payments that workers are entitled to if their company has made them redundant.

The draft legislation was met with public opposition, leading to strikes and demonstrations organised by trades unions and student groups. A broader protest movement, Nuit debout, arose within the context of opposition to the legislation, with the aim of "overthrowing the El Khomri bill and the world it represents".

On 10 May, Prime Minister Manuel Valls announced that the government would force the legislation through France's lower house, the National Assembly, without a vote, using Article 49.3 of the French Constitution. As a result, the law was passed directly to the Senate, France's upper house, for debate.

External links

• (French) Projet de loi visant à instituer de nouvelles libertés et de nouvelles protections pour les entreprises et les actifs