Les politiques de retour à l’emploi en Grande-Bretagne et en France : éléments pour une comparaison

• Main Author: Jean-Paul Révauger
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Centre de Recherche et d'Etudes en Civilisation Britannique 2003-04-01
• Series: Revue Française de Civilisation Britannique
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/3152

Employment policies in Britain and France are more similar than one might think. The difference is more a question of timing than substance. From 1979, under the premiership of Mrs Thatcher, Britain has used both public policies and economic pressure in order to encourage the population to adjust to the New Economy, and to post-Fordism. Flexibility and part-time work were used to this end. For another ten years, until 1990, France resorted to the traditional ‘social treatment’ of unemployment, including early retirement, minimum incomes and subsidised jobs. This was increasingly financed by taxation, and the importance of the insurance-based unemployment benefits declined. After 1990, France adopted a policy consisting in reducing the cost of labour, similar to Britain’s. In both countries, the key concepts are flexibility and employability, although the practical policies used to implement them are different.