Why France Has So Many 49-Employee Companies

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-05-03/why-france-has-so-many-49-employee-companies

Here’s a curious fact about the French economy: The country has 2.4 times as many companies with 49 employees as with 50. What difference does one employee make? Plenty, according to the French labor code. Once a company has at least 50 employees inside France, management must create three worker councils, introduce profit sharing, and submit restructuring plans to the councils if the company decides to fire workers for economic reasons.
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“For the 100 employees we have in France, we have 10 employee representatives, for whom we have to organize weekly meetings even when there is nothing to discuss,” Haan says. “Every time a social security contribution changes, which is frequently, we have to update software and send our HR people for training. We can’t fire anyone without exorbitant costs.”
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The code sets hurdles for any company that seeks to shed jobs when it’s turning a profit. It also grants judges the authority to reverse staff cuts years after they’re initiated if companies don’t follow the rules. The courts even deem some violations of the code a criminal offense that could send executives to jail.

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Ahhh the wonderful socialist Europe.

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Thanks?

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A government that actually puts business executives in jail when they break the law?
I don’t believe it.

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You guys laugh. But just you wait. Another few centuries and Europe is going to collapse. And that’ll show you that they were wrong.

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The result of this restriction isn’t that companies don’t grow – it’s that employers simply create new companies, and employ more than 49 people under different company names:

http://webfarm.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-26/france-unemployment-near-10-fueled-by-laws-election-omits-jobs.html