French workers asked to move to India or face sack

Workers of a recession-hit textile company in south-west France have been asked to shift to India to work in its factory in Bangalore for a pittance or face a sack, a media report has said.

Nine employees at Carreman textiles plant in Castres, south-west France, were told that they could continue working for the firm only if they relocated to Bangalore and accepted a meagre monthly salary of 48 pounds per month, The Daily Telegraph said.

Under the proposal, condemned as 'scandalous' by unions, the workers would be required to have eight-hour days, six days a week -- instead of the current five.

A representative of the workers union said the offer was tantamount to 'dressing up a straight dismissal'.

As an incentive, staff were offered an annual 'bonus' of 50 pounds, plus 800 pounds relocation costs and free plane tickets, the paper said.

Chief of Carreman, Francois Morel, however, said he had offered the posts only to attract attention to the 'stupidity'  of French Labour rules.

"French law obliges us to send a written offer to relocate workers if we possess other plants, even if these plants are in Papua New Guinea or Bangladesh," he said.

Carreman employs 300 workers in France and has another 300 at factories in China, India and eastern Europe. The firm said falling sales meant it had to make 140 redundant.

According to the report, this is not the first time such offers have created outrage in France.

In April, a car parts manufacturer in Brittany had asked workers to move to Poland for 630 pounds per month before tax.