Sarkozy's "Bossnapping" Dilemma

Posted by: Carol Matlack on April 08, 2009

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has promised to stop to the fast-spreading practice of “bossnapping” – workers taking their bosses hostage. “We are a nation of laws. I won’t allow this sort of thing,” Sarkozy said on April 7, after employees of a British-owned adhesives factory in southern France took several managers hostage to protest the plant’s possible closure.

It was the fourth time in less than a month that protesting French workers have detained company executives. Other targets included François-Henri Pinault, the boss of luxury and retail group PPR, who was blocked in his car outside the company’s Paris headquarters for several hours; and managers of French factories owned by Sony, Caterpillar and 3M, who were held overnight and released unharmed.

Sarkozy, who first gained a national following as France’s law-and-order Interior Minister, could easily call in police to liberate kidnapped bosses. But should he?

It could be a risky political move. In a poll last week by the IFOP survey group for Paris Match magazine, 30% said they approved of taking managers hostage.” Another 63% said they “understood but don’t approve.” Only 7% said they “condemned” the practice. A separate poll taken a few days earlier by survey group CSA showed 45% approved of “bossnapping.”

The economic news from France is terrible, with the latest forecasts calling for the economy to shrink 3.3% this year, and for unemployment to jump from an already painful 8.3% to 10.9% by 2010. The popular view seems to be that, with so many workers likely to lose their jobs, locking the boss up for a few hours is a relatively harmless way to let off steam.

And selfish as it may sound, the French may also reckon that “bossnapping” doesn’t inconvenience many people – unlike those massive strikes the country is famous for, in which everything from trains and schools to the postal service is shut down. In fact, there have been only two nationwide strikes since the economic crisis started, each peaceful and lasting only 24 hours.

Kidnapping the boss is clearly illegal and wrong, not to mention an ineffective way to prevent layoffs. As Prime Minister François Fillon has said: “You gain nothing by taking the boss hostage when the order book is empty.” Yet if Sarkozy shuts down this form of protest, he could soon face more-widespread and disruptive ones.