Is safety on a construction site jeopardised if not all workers speak French there?
Vincent You, a right-wing local councillor, came up with the idea a year ago when he visited a building site where no one spoke French. This linguistic confusion gave the councillor the idea of introducing the 'clause Molière'.
According to You, there is "nothing more dangerous than a site where no one understands each other and where the workers cannot read the safety instructions".
The real reason?
But that was not the only reason the politician wanted to introduce the clause. He wanted to give local employment a boost.
'It is only normal that with public money you first and foremost help the local population find a job,' Vincent You let it be known. In other words, he was trying to undermine the European Posting of Workers Directive. That directive allows companies to temporarily employ workers from other European member states. In this way, 340,000 EU citizens work in France via that directive. In recent months, the 'clause Molière' has come into force in the French regions, departments and cities where the right is in power. This has also become a defining theme in the race for the presidency.
Not everyone is happy
Not everyone is in favour of the clause. The left-wing Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve lashed out at the right-wing politicians. According to Cazeneuve, it is "a discriminatory measure that serves only electoral purposes".
The entourage of independent candidate Emmanuel Macron was also dissatisfied with the measure.
'This is scandalous. Almost 200,000 French workers also work abroad. Will they have to learn Polish if they go and work there temporarily?' was the sarcastic response.
France, 16/03/2017
Source: De Tijd