"We're touching something sacred here"

"We're touching something sacred here," said François Vergne, a lawyer in Paris with Morgan Lewis, a leading employment law firm in the United States

to the International Herald Tribune's Katrin Bennhold.

The traditional French CDI, which still accounts for almost 90 percent of employment contracts, has an average probation period of 1.5 months, compared with 6 months in Germany, 9 to 12 months in Denmark and one year in Britain. After that, dismissals can cost employers 12 to 24 months of salary. Disputes take a year on average and are judged by employment tribunals, which must rule in favor of the employee where there is reasonable doubt.

Roubaud knows that firsthand. In his 33 years as head of Simonet, he said, he has fired only four people. Twice, the dispute involved years of legal wrangling; in one case the costs matched his company's annual profit.

"That sort of experience puts you off hiring," he said. "It gives you existential fears if you're running a small business."