Forcibly Confining Your Employer

In the aftermath of the many job losses wrought by this present recession (and then end is not here), some workers are taking a variety of measures to assert their claims to fair compensation in the event of layoffs. A recent case this morning illustrates this. According to an Associated Press report, French unionized workers at the Caterpillar plant in Grenoble, France detained four of their employers and refused them the ability to leave. According to the AP, similar protests have happened in recent weeks by French workers. The aim of the protests is to force management to hold new talks on layoff plans. While a union official characterized the act as follows, "[t]here is no violence or sequestration, but simply pressure so they restart negotiations," what it amounted to was a forced confinement and/or false imprisonment which clearly goes beyond otherwise regular legal channels of labour protest. In the coming months with expected layoffs to emerge, we may expect there to be increasing resistance to business decisions of management that result in tremendous job losses - resistance that may take the form of similar measures and others that may be more violent in nature. It will be interesting to see how governments and law treat such actions and what the receptivity of juries (where applicable) will be to such actions.