Myriam El Khomri

Myriam El Khomri (born 18 February 1978) is a former French politician of the Socialist Party (PS) who served as Minister of Labour in the government of Prime Minister Manuel Valls from 2015 to 2017.

Myriam El Khomri
Councillor of Paris
Assumed office
21 March 2008
French Minister of Labor, Employment, Vocational Training and Social Dialogue
In office
2 September 2015 – 10 May 2017
PresidentFrançois Hollande
Prime MinisterManuel Valls
Bernard Cazeneuve
Preceded byFrançois Rebsamen
Succeeded byMuriel Pénicaud
State Secretary for City Policy
In office
2 September 2015 – 10 May 2017
PresidentFrançois Hollande
Prime MinisterManuel Valls
Preceded byNajat Vallaud-Belkacem
Succeeded byHélène Geoffroy
Personal details
Born (1978-02-18) 18 February 1978
Rabat, Morocco
NationalityFrench
Political partySocialist Party
Alma materUniversity of Bordeaux
Pantheon-Sorbonne University

Early life and education

El Khomri was born on 18 February 1978 in Rabat. Her father is Moroccan and her mother is from Brittany.[1][2] Until the age of nine, she lived in Tangier. She then moved with her family to Thouars and then to Mérignac.[3]

In 1995, El Khomri studied public law at the Montesquieu University. She financed her studies with scholarships and holding several jobs.[3] In 1999, she moved to Paris and continued her law studies at the University of Pantheon-Sorbonne University, where she obtained a specialized graduate diploma (DESS) in political science (political administration) in 2001.

Political career

Career in local politics

In March 2008, El Khomri was elected as a councillor in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, on the Daniel Vaillant-Bertrand Delanoë's list. She has since been a member of the Council of Paris and from 2008 to 2011, deputy mayor, in charge of all questions relating to child protection and specialized prevention, then from February 18, 2011 to August 27, 2014, date of her entry into government, deputy mayor responsible for all matters relating to prevention and security.

On April 21, 2008, El Khomri was appointed representative of the Council of Paris on the board of directors of the social action center of the City of Paris and then on May 10, 2008 on the supervisory board of the Bullion Pediatrics and Rehabilitation Hospital and on May 26, 2008 to the pupil surveillance committee of the City of Paris.

El Khomri supported Martine Aubry during the socialist presidential primary in 2011. During the legislative elections of 2012, she was the substitute for Christophe Caresche, deputy for the 18th constituency of Paris.[4]

During the 2014 municipal election campaign in Paris, El Khomri was one of Anne Hidalgo's spokespersons. Approached by the latter to take over from Daniel Vaillant as mayor of the 18th arrondissement of Paris, the outgoing mayor preferred Éric Lejoindre. She was reappointed as deputy mayor.[5]

Secretary of State for the City

El Khomri was appointed, from August 26, 2014, Secretary of State for City Policy under Minister of the City, Youth and Sports Patrick Kanner in the second government of Prime Minister Manuel Valls.[6]

The policy having been defined by the law constructed by François Lamy in the Ayrault government, El Khomri focused on communications. She made its first public appearance in Nantes on September 7, 2014 on the occasion of the foundation of the collective "Pas sans nous", coordination of groups of working-class neighborhoods and then increased travel in the field, especially in municipalities run by the National Front.

Minister of Labour
Myriam El Khomri in 2016

On September 2, 2015, El Khomri was appointed Minister of Labor, Employment, Vocational Training and Social Dialogue, after the resignation of François Rebsamen.[7] Her appointment increased the contingent of women in the cabinet to a majority for the first time in the country's history.[8] As when she was appointed to the Secretary of State for the City, El Khomri was the subject of critical comments, sometimes racist and sexist, on social networks.[9]

In her capacity as minister, El Khomri commissioned a study in 2015 that warned about the dangers of “info-obesity,” suggesting that using a smartphone to check work emails at all hours of the day can cause burnout, sleeplessness and relationship problems.[10]

Most notably, El Khomri was responsible for presenting at the beginning of 2016 a controversial bill reforming the legislation relating to work, with in particular a flexibilisation of working time,[11] the bases of the future personal activity account, measures on occupational medicine and provisions on the restructuring of professional branches. She planned to include provisions to protect self-employed workers on collaborative platforms like Uber.[12] The law sparked strike action led by Philippe Martinez and others, with much of the anger targeted at El Khomri.[13] In 2016, the French cabinet gave Prime Minister Valls permission to bypass parliament and enact a sweeping set of labour reforms known widely as the El Khomri law.[14] Later that year, El Khomri announced that the number of people out of work in France had fallen to the lowest point in almost four years.[15]

On December 8, 2016, El Khomri was chosen by the PS's members as candidate for the 2017 legislative elections in the 18th constituency of Paris.[16] She called on her supporters to vote for Emmanuel Macron in the second round. In return, Macron's La République En Marche! did field a candidate to challenge her in the legislative elections.[17] She announced that she wanted to carry the values of the left within the presidential majority and faced Pierre-Yves Bournazel, LR's candidate, who also said he supported the presidential majority. She was beaten at the end of the second round, with 53.6% against 46.4%.

Life after politics

After leaving government, El Khomri moved to consulting by creating in November 2017 a business consultancy, MEK Conseil. In May 2018, she also became a senior advisor to Lee Hecht Harrison Altedia, and in March 2019, she joined the insurance brokerage group Siaci Saint Honoré as director of the consulting division at its consulting and strategy subsidiary S2H Consulting.[18]

In March 2018, El Khomri performed with Roselyne Bachelot and Marlène Schiappa a representation of The Vagina Monologues at the Bobino theater. The profits of the show went to the Feminist Collective against rape.[19]

In July 2019, the Minister of Solidarity and Health Agnès Buzyn appointed El Khomri to head a mission on the attractiveness of professions in the elderly, with the aim of combating the shortage of personnel in this sector.[20]

References
  1. "Ville.gouv.fr - Ministère de la Cohésion des territoires". Ville.gouv.fr - Ministère de la Cohésion des territoires. Retrieved 3 June 2017.
  2. Nivelle, Pascale (7 October 2014). "Myriam El-Khomri. Son nouveau pari". Libération (in French). Retrieved 2 June 2016.
  3. Nicolas Michel (21 October 2011). "Myriam El Khomri, monitor and prevent" (in French). Jeune Afrique. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  4. Anne-Sophie Lechevallier (24 March 2016). "Myriam El Khomri: "I have chained fixed-term contracts"" (in French). Paris Match. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  5. Sonya Faure & Willy Le Devin (26 August 2016). "El Khomri, the obviousness of Paris" (in French). Libération. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  6. "The composition of the Valls II government revealed" (in French). Le Figaro. 26 August 2016. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  7. Gaétan Supertino (2 September 2015). "Myriam El Khomri, the new Minister of Labor, has work to do" (in French). Europe 1. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  8. Andrew Callus (September 2, 2015), Labour appointment puts French women ministers in majority Reuters.
  9. Marion Dautry (28 August 2014). "Government Valls 2: Myriam El Khomri victim of racist attacks on Twitter" (in French). RTL. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  10. Harry Cooper (December 31, 2016), French workers gain ‘right to disconnect’ Politico Europe.
  11. Nicolas Colin (March 16, 2016), Paradox in Paris as Emmanuel Macron faces Gallic stubbornness Financial Times.
  12. Marie Bellan & Derek Perrotte (6 January 2016). "Self-employed workers: El Khomri wants to charge Internet platforms" (in French). Les Echos. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  13. Michel Rose and Ingrid Melander (March 9, 2016), French students, unions protest against labor reforms Reuters.
  14. "French labour reforms: Government to force plan through". BBC News. 2016-05-10. Retrieved 2016-05-25.
  15. Bate Felix (December 26, 2016), French jobless total falls for third straight month in November Reuters.
  16. Nicolas Maviel (9 December 2016). "Legislative: PS activists have chosen Myriam El Khomri" (in French). Le Parisien. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  17. Pierre Briançon (May 23, 2017), Emmanuel Macron plunges head-first into labor reform Politico Europe.
  18. Shahinez Benabed (22 March 2019). "Former Labor Minister Myriam El Khomri recruited by an insurance broker" (in French). Acteurs publics. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  19. ""Vagina monologues": Schiappa, Bachelot and El Khomri together on stage" (in French). L'Express. 8 March 2018. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  20. Béatrice Jérôme (13 June 2019). "Myriam El Khomri will lead a mission on the professions of old age" (in French). Le Monde. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
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