I know very little about the French employment apparatus beyond the fact that they have what, a 35-hour workweek? Is it near impossible to fire someone over there? Of course, government jobs are pretty much like that here, as well.
Sigh.
MM
"Of course, government jobs are pretty much like that here, as well."
Most government jobs here in the U.S. have a 6-month probationary period within which you can be fired for any reason at all. After that, you still can be fired with cause; it's just that the process to do so is cumbersome and tedious. However, it can still be done. I know this as I worked in management at a major state university.
Plus, there were different levels of workers. Unionized workers, such as janitorial, clerical, housekeeping, grounds, etc., were protected by union contracts, and the process to can someone was difficult, but not at all impossible. Another layer were the contract workers. They were usually professionals such as tech support, part-time instructors, many managerial and higher administrative people. Their contracts were usually for 1 year, and if someone was unhappy with a worker's product, when their one-year contract was up, they could be given a 6-month notice within which to go find another job, and by the end of the 6-month period were gone. The third class of workers (I'm speaking of that which I know about here which is universities, although when younger I had a different state job once and it worked pretty much the same way) were the professors, deans, college presidents, chancellors, vice-chancellors, etc. Highest management and administration along w/the academics. The professors were tenured, and most of the other positions were held by professors who moved into management and/or administration, and thus also had tenure (or a long-term contract in some cases). Amongst this category, you almost had to be an axe murderer in order to get canned. It just doesn't happen, as the Ward Churchill case proves. So, depending on your category, most people could be fired eventually, with the exception of the profs of whom, once they had tenure, were pretty much invincible to job loss.