M&S staff in noisy Paris protest
Hundreds of Marks & Spencer staff have been demonstrating outside the company's flagship Paris store to protest at the closure of 18 shops in France.
The struggling company announced the closures last week, triggering a fierce outcry in France, with politicians criticising the way news of the shutdowns was broken to 1,700 employees.
Workers from Marks & Spencer's two Paris stores and from other outlets around the country blew whistles and chanted as they marched along the Boulevard Haussmann in the capital's main shopping district.
"We want to show our annoyance about the way the closures were announced," said Djamila Zennadi, a shop steward and member of the CGT trade union.
The retailer plans to close all its stores in continental Europe, cutting about 6% of its work force. Vandevelde said the moves were designed to help the firm focus on its core business in Britain.
The move will eliminate 4,390 jobs, 3,350 in continental Europe and just over 1,000 in Britain. The company employs 75,000 people worldwide, 62,000 of which are in Britain.
Prime Minister Lionel Jospin has said the government will do everything it can to protect the jobs of the Marks & Spencer employees.
The Socialist leader said last weekend that it looked like the employees had been told of the closures by e-mail. He said such behaviour should be punished.
The Labour Ministry has launched an inquiry into whether French labour laws on notifying workers were violated. Results are due in the next few days.
Four trade unions have filed a complaint against the company for the way it told workers of the layoffs. A Paris court is expected to rule on Monday on their request to suspend the lay-off plan.
