FRENCH LABOUR LAWS

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1014, 2 January 1911, Page 6

FRENCH LABOUR LAWS

INTERESTING PROPOSALS. At the Council of Ministers held in Paris on -November 15, under tho Presidency of 1 !!; Fallieres, the Prime Minister, M. Briand, explained the general lines of the measures which h® is framing to ensure the working of'the public services during a Laliour crisis. . The Bills for this purpose, according to tho "Temps," will be four or five in number." The first'will deal with the settlement of collective conflicts on the railways. It tends to organise a system of conciliation and arbitration 1 by means of permanent councils, in' which the companies and their employees will be represented, and of an Arbitral Council. By the terms of this Bill,-any attempt or incitement to strike will be* prohibited, whilst the negotiations 'are - proceeding, and-if arbitration is refused the - ; striko will be prevented from becoming eifcctive. ...

The scope of the other Bills is !•- firevent the cessation of work in the pubic services. These services- aro classed under two heads, first, that of the rail'wavs in which the national ■ defence is involved; and, second, those in which the general interests—national life, hygiene, and public safety—are involved. For the service of the railways, modifications in the Military Law of 1905 are to be introduced, enabling the Government to exercise the right of requisition in the case of the servants of the companies, whenever circumstances demand. At present the exercise of this right is so restricted as to be practically useless in the event of a prolonged or repented strikIn the case of the other public services, which aro of a purely civil character, it is a question of giving increased scope of application to the principle laid down in Article 475, Paragraph 12. of the Penal Code, empowering the public authorities to requisition both objects and individuals under penal sanction. At present Article 75 only contemplates the case of public calamities, accidents, riots, shipwrecks, Hoods, and iires. It is now to be made applicable to the cases in which a strike in the public, service endangers publi,c security or any other interest of a general character. Another Bill will recast in certain points the' Law of 18-15 on the Policing of li'nilways, with a view to bringing within the Act certain cases not foreseen, or which can onlv indirectly bo reached V it.

Finally, a Bill -rill be necessary for the effective repression of acts of "sabotage," either by modifying' the articles of tlPenal Code affecting this kind of acts or by completing tlio law of 1881 with regard to incitement to such acts.