Students clash with police in Paris as they protest labor reforms

French students from high schools and universities have staged a massive protest rally to demonstrate against unpopular labor reforms recently proposed by the French government.

On Thursday, large crowds of angry student protesters took to the streets of Paris to denounce President Francois Hollande's austerity plans targeting maximum working hours, holidays, and pay on rest breaks.

Chanting anti-government slogans, student youths hurled shovels, flares and other projectiles at riot police in central Paris.

The protesters also held up banners that read: "Our future is under threat" and expressing the students' opposition to the legislation.

Violent clashes erupted as riot police used tear gas to disperse the angry demonstrators.

Similar protests were held in Paris and 200 other cities on Wednesday against the proposed reforms.

This comes as France’s unions and youth groups continue to voice opposition to a drastic overhaul of the labor code. Nationwide strikes and protests regularly take place across the nation, with more planned for the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, Zoia Guschlbauer, a student union leader at the latest rally called for nationwide massive rallies across France

"Yes, the movement continues and it's spreading. Today there are more people than last week. Last week there were about 30 schools that mobilized, this week there are 60, just within Paris. We don't have the numbers yet from the suburbs, we'll have them later," Guschlbauer said. "It's spreading; it shows that young people feel extremely concerned about this law because it's their future. And they want the law to be withdrawn, it's as simple as that. And that's why they're here."

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Monday unveiled the revised version of the bill, saying the government has modified the bill after listening to the "concerns" raised by the unions.

In the revised version, the government will no longer impose a cap on severance pay for dismissed workers, a measure many companies argued would have helped reduce the uncertainty of going through the industrial court system. Instead, the new limits will be introduced as non-binding guidelines.

In the revised plan, the government will also give industrial courts more latitude than originally planned to assess the health of a company trying to lay off workers.

The new plan also increases the right of unskilled workers to training and gives more financial aid to young people.

However, the revised version has failed to calm protesters.

The government claims that the reforms liberalize the country’s strict labor regulations. Opponents say, however, that the main aim of reforms is to make it easier for employers to lay off workers.

According to a recent survey by pollster Oxoda, 70 percent of French citizens over the age of 18 oppose the proposed reforms. Furthermore, an online petition against the draft law has gathered more than a million signatures so far.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.ir