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 The hardline CGT and FO unions already announced on Monday they
would boycott the second and final day of the two-day meeting,
angered by concessions made by the government to the main employer
grouping Medef.
The FSU, which bills itself as France main public sector and
teachers' union, said it was following suit in protest at the way
the summit was being organised and over planned cuts to public
spending in the 2014 budget.
"The FSU has just slammed the door on the social conference," its
General Secretary Bernadette Groison said, just two hours after the
start of talks on Tuesday. "(The talks) have got off to too bad a
start in terms of the method of dialogue."
The meeting comes a week after Hollande's government - seeking to
keep deficit-cutting promises to EU partners - pushed a new series
of budget cuts through parliament, which later on Tuesday is due to
vote on further welfare state spending cuts.
Groison said the FSU wanted Hollande, who at the same time has
promised 40 billion euros ($55 billion)of payroll and tax cuts to
business, to detail how such savings would affect France's public
sector.
The aim of the summit is two-fold: to get clarity from employers on
how they plan to use the tax cuts to boost hiring, and to study
proposals to remove other obstacles to job creation - for example by
simplifying France's 3,200-page labour code.
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Both the jobs summit and the vote over the welfare budget have
crystallised left-wing resistance to the more pro-business path
undertaken since the start of the year by Hollande and his new
centrist prime minister, Manuel Valls.
While the welfare cuts should pass easily in a vote due in
parliament from 3:00 pm (1300 GMT), around 30 lawmakers from their
ruling Socialist Party are expected to abstain in protest.
(Reporting by Emmanuel Jarry; writing by Mark John; editing by John
Irish)
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