El Khomri law

The loi n° 2016-1088 du 8 août 2016 relative au travail, à la modernisation du dialogue social et à la sécurisation des parcours professionnels is a piece of national legislation in France relating to employment. It is commonly known as the El Khomri law or the Loi travail.

The Law was first presented in parliament on 17 February 2016 by labour minister Myriam El Khomri under the Second Valls Government; it was adopted into law on 8 August 2016. The legislation was designed to revise France's Labour Code with the aim of making the country's labour market more flexible, which the government claimed would reduce unemployment.

The law makes it easier for companies to lay off workers, reduces overtime payments for hours worked beyond France's statutory 35-hour workweek, and reduces severance payments that workers are entitled to if their company has made them redundant.

After the legislation was first proposed in parliament, and while it was still in its draft stage, it was met with significant public opposition and became a catalyst for strikes and demonstrations organised by trades unions and student groups. A broader protest movement known as Nuit debout arose within the context of opposition to the legislation; the movement stated its aims as "overthrowing the El Khomri bill and the world it represents".

On 10 May, Prime Minister Manuel Valls announced that the government would force the legislation through France's lower house, the National Assembly, without a vote, using Article 49.3 of the French Constitution. As a result, the law was passed directly to the Senate, France's upper house, for debate. Following two further invocations of article 49.3, the law was definitively passed in the lower house on 21 July, and was approved by the Constitutional Council on 4 August before being adopted into law on 8 August.

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