[lbo-talk] Four Ways to Fire a Frenchman

[JC Helary]

>> As for Japan, companies have ways to harrass union members, or any
>> worker by moving them around the country in their branch offices,
>> every year. That would be impossible in France too because a labor
>> contract does specify the work place and any breach of contract
>> related to a modification of the work place would be ruled against
>> the company within a matter of days.
>>
>> JC Helary
>
>
> Actually, this article says that French companies also use the  
> tactic of job assignment against "problem employees" -- except that  
> French workers can retaliate by taking employers to labor court, if  
> they get tired of getting paid to do nothing.
>
> 4. PUT HIM IN A CUPBOARD AND THROW AWAY THE KEY
> Some managers with problem employees simply "put them in the  
> cupboard," as the French saying goes, which usually means moving  
> them out of the way and leaving them alone in hopes that they  
> eventually quit.

Definitely, but that generally does not involve a geographical change  
in the labor place. It would be in the same building, on another  
floor, in a remote room etc. And moving them "out of the way" can be  
simply activity wise: they would be put in a hierarchical position  
where they don't get do do anything.

I'd stay it is much less stressful than actually moving someone from  
Takamatsu to Hiroshima one year then to Osaka the next year, Kochi  
the third etc, with the financial costs involved in moving a whole  
family, changing of school for the kids. There is a _huge_ amount of  
pressure here that I never felt in France ever. Japan is much more  
efficient in that regard, and workers are not protected the way  
French workers "put in a cupboard" are.

Jean-Christophe