These included reducing the legal workweek, lowering the retirement age, increasing social welfare benefits, and extending entitlement to paid holidays.

It also reduced the burden of direct taxes on lower-income groups, increased the minimum wage and unemployment benefits, and extended health care coverage.

These included limiting the duration of fixed-term contracts and assignments, opening up civil service jobs to women, abolishing tax laws that favored the head of the household, and providing special aid to farmers.

Reforms were also introduced to make entry to the National School of Administration more accessible to a wider range of French society, including raising the age limit and reducing the advantage of upper-class applicants.

The Auroux Laws of 1982 improved the rights of trade unions and employees in France, including collective bargaining, representation, information, health and safety, and protection against unfair dismissal.

The government also introduced measures to provide greater employment security for part-time and fixed-term workers, ensure equal benefits for women in civil service, and encourage the formation of immigrant associations.

These programmes were aimed at stimulating consumption and aggregate demand by providing firms with incentives to hire younger workers as replacements for early retirees.

[10] Elderly people benefited greatly from the social and economic measures undertaken by the Mauroy Government, with the real income of pensioners rising by a quarter.

This legislation marked a new departure in anti-discriminatory efforts and, reinforced by a series of measures taken by the Rocard government in 1989, brought an end to wage differentials hidden by different job descriptions.

[3] A guiding law about domestic transport enacted in 1982 stipulated “that the government needs to provide reasonably priced public transport for all citizens.”[14] In 1983 a new minimum contributory pension was introduced “with increments according to the number of children,”[15] a collaborative 'interministerial' approach to employment and the social rehabilitation of 'at risk' youth was adopted, and in 1983 the Banlieue 89 project was instigated for social and educational measures on estates in the educational priority areas.

As a result of such policies, urban grants (as a proportion of local authority revenues) significantly increased during the first three years of the Mitterrand presidency, especially in municipalities controlled by the Left.

The Premier S programme was an attempt to postpone definitive scholastic and social segregation, and also to reduce the importance of mathematical aptitude as the primary criterion for selection into élite schools.

[29] The outgoing centre-right government was perceived to have harassed university assistants, the most junior faculty rank, by publicly questioning their qualifications, by increasing the teaching load of those who had not completed doctoral theses, and by limiting prospects for promotion and tenure.

[24] Government decrees of September and October 1982 introduced various reforms aimed at making entry to the National School of Administration (or ENA) more accessible to a wider range of French society.

The age limit was raised to enable less favoured candidates to catch up on career advancement, the element in the entrance examination for "general culture" (which had proven advantageous to upper-class applicants) was reduced, students from other grandes ecoles were prevented from making claims that they were already civil servants when they applied to the National School of Administration, and a rule of parity between students and lower civil servants among candidates for admission to the ENA was established.

In addition, a law of January 1983 introduced a third route of access to the National School of Administration, reserved for those who had held important posts in mutual aid societies, voluntary associations, and trade unions for a period of at least eight years, and extended this opportunity to certain local elected officials.

[30] The Auroux laws (1982) increased the rights of trade unions and employees in the workplace, covering collective bargaining, representation, information, health and safety, and unfair dismissal.

[33] Mandatory collective bargaining at the firm level of industry was introduced, while the laws also strengthened the rules on health and safety in the workplace, bestowing more rights upon the Comites d’hygiene et securite (though not the right to stop production in case of extreme danger), while also granting working-class representatives release time, training for involvement in the comite d’entreprise and other representative bodies in the firm, recourse to expert consultants.

That same year, the government passed legislation to ensure the full, legal eligibility of women for all civil service posts and an active policy was adopted to encourage them to come forward for promotion.

In March 1982, a "Special Statute" was granted to Corsica, which set the territory apart legally from other regions and provided it with additional state subsidies and greater autonomy over cultural, social, economic, and educational policies.

New policies removed the French language requirements of immigrants to run for seats in employee institutions, and foreign workers became eligible for the first time to sit on important industrial relations councils known as the Conseils des Prud’hommes.

[38] A law passed on 9 July 1984 provided that a worker with at least two years' service must receive a redundancy payment based on gross earnings prior to termination of the work contract.

A circular of July 1982 on maximum concentrations was supplemented by two others, dated December 1983 and May 1984, with a view to the introduction of EEC Directive 80-1107 November 1980 on the protection of workers from exposure to chemical, physical and biological agents at work.

[39] A law on worker's democracy in public-sector companies was passed in July 1983 which sought to recreate a spirit of tripartism in a sector of the economy where existing statutory rights had failed to provide anything more than a consultative role for representatives.

Legal aid was extended, legislation was introduced which effectively combated discrimination against homosexuals, and the traditional powers of the juge d’instruction in the preparation of criminal cases was reduced.

[50] Unemployed workers ineligible for jobless benefits were given back the right to claim sickness insurance that they had lost in 1979 while the reimbursal of the costs of dental fees, hearing aids, and glasses was improved.

[51] To assist young farmers, the role of the SAFER (Societe d'Amenagemcnt Foncier et d'Etablissement Rural) was extended in 1982 to give preferential aid to this group to enlarge their holdings.

[57] In addition, an Act of October 1982 fully extended the right to join a union to people who were retired,[58] and a law of February 1984 increased state support for the development and training activities of companies.

[49] Although the government's reflationary policies tended to stabilise unemployment, the number of people out of work topped 2 million, in spite of a pledge made by Mitterrand to keep it below this figure.

This led Mauroy to advocate the abandonment of Socialist economic policies (which failed to reduce unemployment and inflation), a controversial "U-turn" which was ratified by President Mitterrand in March 1983, and a number of austerity measures were carried out.