PARIS (Reuters) - French unions railed on Monday against a suggestion from the country's main employers' association to cut the number of holidays, increase the hours that workers put in each week and pay below the minimum wage.
The proposals are a red flag for unions in a country where workers' rights are cherished. The MEDEF employers association broke major taboos for French workers in a document outlining how to increase jobs that was leaked to the business newspaper Les Echos.
But the euro zone's second-biggest economy is stagnating, and President Francois Hollande's Socialist government has struggled to reduce unemployment, now stuck at more than 10 percent.
The government eased labour-market rules earlier this year, but many business leaders say the reform did not go far enough. It left permanent work contracts largely intact and offered only limited flexibility to employers.
The MEDEF document said that getting rid of two out of 11 annual holidays would allow 100,000 jobs to be created, and recommended allowing retailers to open on Sundays and later in the evening.
It also urged more flexibility on the limits on the work week, now 35 hours, and suggested people now getting only a minimum income state handout might supplement their income by working for less than the minimum wage, currently 9.53 euros (£7.59) per hour.
"I call that a provocation," said Laurent Berger, head of the CFDT centrist union. "For the CFDT, treading on that ground is out of the question."
The head of the hardline Force Ouvriere union, Jean-Claude Mailly, said the proposals were a joke and that they could not serve as a basis for any negotiation.
"After working on Sunday and increasing the legal work week, what's the next step going to be? Making children work?" Mailly said on BFM TV.
MEDEF sought to downplay the suggestions, with one official saying it was aiming to produce proposals in the coming weeks to create jobs and did not want to stir up controversy.
MEDEF's leaked proposals will add to tensions with unions as they sit down together in negotiations under way about thresholds for union representation in companies.
Unions and left-wing politicians are increasingly critical of the government for pledging to phase out 30 billion euros in payroll tax on companies at a time when workers' wages are stagnating.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls will seek to contain the discontent when he defends the government's reform plans before a confidence vote in parliament on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Jean-Stephane Brosse, Marion Douet and Emmanuel Jarry; Writing by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Larry King)