每日英語跟讀 Ep.K514: Macron Tries to Get France to Work

The sign on the window of Red Rhino, a popular barbecue restaurant in central Paris, has been up for a month: “Closed until further notice due to lack of personnel.” Bus and train service has been cut back in the tourist city of Lyon amid a dearth of drivers. In the Loire Valley, tons of vegetables went unharvested in the summer as thousands of picking jobs were left unfilled.

法國巴黎市中心一家人氣燒烤店「紅犀牛」櫥窗招牌已立了一個月：「人手不足，暫停營業至另行通知」。因司機不足，東南部觀光城市里昂的客運和鐵路已減班。在西部羅亞爾河谷，由於數千個採菜工作懸缺，去年夏季有成噸蔬菜無人採收。

Economic activity has fitfully revved up again in France and across Europe since the end of COVID-19 lockdowns, only to be knocked back by the effects of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Even so, employers in numerous industries remain desperate to hire, with a range of businesses still not finding the workers needed to operate at capacity.

新冠疫情防疫封鎖結束以來，法國乃至全歐洲的經濟活動已陸續再次活絡，孰料又遭俄烏戰爭效應擊退。儘管如此，諸多產業的雇主依然需人孔急，一些企業仍未覓得產能全開所需的勞工。

All of which has prompted France, Europe’s second-largest economy, to seek a variety of solutions — all of them politically combustible.

這些狀況已促使歐洲第二大經濟體法國尋求各種解決之道，而這些解方都會引爆政治爭議。

President Emmanuel Macron’s government is proposing a fast-track legalization for migrants in the country illegally who want to work in sectors facing staff shortages.

總統馬克宏領導的政府提議，非法居留法國的移民若願意在面臨缺工行業上班，就可快速合法化。

For added measure, the government is moving to tighten France’s famously generous unemployment system, with its lengthy benefits, in a bid to cycle jobless people more quickly back into the workforce.

馬克宏政府還採額外措施，收緊以長期給付而慷慨聞名的法國失業制度，設法加快失業者重回職場的周期。

The plans have met with resistance from different ends of the political spectrum. Lawmakers from France’s rising far right say a growing influx of migrants must be brought under tighter control and that French nationals should be given priority for jobs. The country’s powerful labor unions are warning that measures to cut jobless benefits risk pushing the unemployed toward poverty.

相關改革計畫已招致法國政治光譜兩端的反對。法國崛起的極右派國會議員指稱，愈來愈多移民湧入，必須更嚴格控制，法國國民應享有優先工作權。法國強勢的工會正警告，削減失業給付恐將失業者推向貧困。

For thousands of businesses that form the backbone of the economy, the double-barreled approach has become necessary to help fix to what appears to be a permanent shift in workplace dynamics since the pandemic, as European workers in droves switch jobs or decide not to return to strenuous work that demands early or late hours on relatively low pay. Over half a million people in France resigned in the first three months of the year, the highest level in 15 years, France’s statistics agency reported.

對形成法國經濟骨幹的數以千計企業而言，前述雙管齊下方法已不可或缺，才能有助化解新冠疫情以來職場動態似乎出現的永久性轉變，也就是歐洲大批勞工換工作，或決定不回到相對低薪還要求一早或很晚上班的勞累工作。法國統計局通報，2022年第一季全法有50多萬人辭職，創15年來新高。

“Our society after the pandemic has a different outlook,” said Thierry Marx, a Michelin-starred French chef who is the president of UMIH, France’s influential trade association of restaurants and hotels. “People are saying, I don’t want to have a sacrificial relationship to work.”

法國頗具影響力的餐廳與旅館同業公會「旅館餐飲職業產業聯盟」主席、法籍「米其林」星級主廚馬克斯說，「疫情之後我們社會出現一個不同的觀點，如今人們會說，我不想為工作犧牲奉獻」。Source article: https://udn.com/news/story/6904/6909797