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Union's ultimatum to Villepin on job law

Angelique Chrisafis

Paris: French unions and student leaders on Wednesday gave the Government 10 days to scrap its youth employment law, or face renewed strikes and protests.

Roused by three million demonstrators on the streets this week, union leaders on Wednesday met the ruling conservative UMP party, which is deeply divided and desperate to find a way out of the crisis without appearing to cave in.

The 12 unions said in a joint statement that if the Government's ``first employment law'' was not revoked by April 17, the French Parliament's Easter break, they would step up protests which have seen hundreds of universities and high schools blockaded for weeks. Asked what they would do if the deadline was not met, unions said that nothing was ruled out.

The Government says its new ``easy-hire, easy fire'' contract would curb unemployment, which rises to 50 per cent in deprived suburbs. The law, pushed through Parliament by the Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin, without a debate last month, would spare businesses France's rigid employment laws by allowing them to take on workers under-26 in the knowledge they could let them go after two years. President Jacques Chirac last week signed the law but amended the probation period to a year and said that firms must state their reasons.

- Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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