France protests: Govt to force Paris rubbish collectors to return to work as trash stacks up

The French government will force rubbish collectors in Paris to return to work after the long strikes following a days-long strike against pension reforms has left many streets in the capital piled with stinking waste. On Wednesday, police chief Laurent Nunez informed Paris mayorAnne Hidalgo that the government would use its powerto "requisition" striking trash collectors, forcing them back to work under threat of prosecution, the news agency AFP reported on Thursday

According to city hall figures, around 7,600 tonnes of rubbish were piled on the streets of Paris by Wednesday.

For weeks, workers in France have walked off the job in protest against President EmmanuelMacron's plans to reform the pension system, whose headline measures are raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 and increasing the number of years people must pay in to receive a full pension.

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AFP reported that rubbish collectors have run one of the few rolling strikes against the proposed changes, whileother sectors have held successive one-day walkouts accompanying mass demonstrations.

Paris Mayor Hidalgo- who sides with the protesters- said that the demand of the rubbish workers in the capital, who do not want to work for two years longer, was fair.

"The only answer that could calm the current climate is social dialogue, rather than a test of strength," she added.

On Wednesday, private waste collection company Derichebourg said that it would stop filling in for city binmen after it was threatened with pickets on its depots. And a day later, police cleared a blockade at another private waste firm, Pizzorno Environment, allowing its trucks to resume collections in Paris' 15th district and from 150 schools across the capital.

And on Thursday, thousands of people massed in France's capital to protest President Macron's government imposing the controversial pensions overhaul without a parliament vote.

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