Tensions with trade unions overshadows government social meeting

The ruling Socialists on Monday opened their third social conference amid tensions with social partners that cast doubts about the government's roadmap to spur job creation, promote investment and kick start an ailing economy.
CGT and FO, France's main two trade unions announced their decision to boycott the second day of the meeting on Tuesday, denouncing the government's "contempt" towards trade unions.
The unions' move was a response to the Prime Minister Manuel Valls decision to partially postpone a compensation mechanism for hardship working conditions related to pension reform to appease employers organizations MEDEF and CGPME.
After meeting French president Francois Hollande, FO leader Jean-Claude Mailly denounced "a real bug in the social dialogue." citing "disagreements over the pact of responsibility "and" intemperate statements of (Valls)."
Kicking off activity of the social conference, the Socialist head of State stressed that dialogue with social partners "...implies respect for partners," and was not "a perpetual exaggeration."
"I chose the social dialogue to reform the country... We must be together to act," Hollande told participants.
Reiterating the government targets to quicken growth and bring down the alarming job claims, French president urged swift move to bridge gaps between trade unions and employers organizations over the responsibility pact, calling on companies to "urgently achieve real results in terms job creation."
In this context, Hollande ordered the creation of a group to evaluate the progress of talks on the reform pact based on lowering labor costs by scrapping of family contributions worth 30 billion euros (40.81 billion U.S. dollars) in a bid to encourage recruitment and bolster competitiveness.
With its fresh device, the government eyes to create 1.8 million new posts over the next five years.
Facing growing trend in unemployment rate, Hollande pointed to the need to improve training to win the battle against joblessness, pledging to train 500,000 people per year until 2017. Furthermore, he proposed to open the door of public offices to 10,000 jobseekers by 2016. (1 euro = 1.36 U.S. dollars)