French call for rights under privatisation

Around 60,000 French trade unionists took to the streets of Paris last month to demand that their existing rights be maintained in the government's privatisation plans.

The unions are concerned that privatisation will bring poorer conditions on a day-to-day basis as in most cases employment contracts in public sector companies differ from those in the private sector.

They are also worried that their pensions may be worsened and that the introduction of private capital will lead to job losses and a move away from the public service ethos of their organisation.

The majority of the marchers on 3 October came from France's giant electricity and gas company, EDF-GDF, but there were also contingents from Air France, where some flights were grounded, the railways, the post office, France Telecom and the Paris transport system, RATP.

Government ministers received representatives of the unions and insisted that their rights would be preserved.

The recently elected centre-right government of prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin has indicated that it plans to introduce more private capital into the remaining nationalised industries, including the wholly public post office, the electricity and gas industries (EDF-GDF) and Air France and France Telecom, which are both partially privatised. However, the timescale and the arrangements are still unclear.