Paris protest over RSI 'failings'

UP TO 50,000 self-employed workers will take to the streets of Paris today to protest about how they are treated by the French social contributions body, the RSI.

They will march from the Senate to the National Assembly from 13.00 this afternoon, calling for urgent reform to how the RSI operates - and have threatened to occupy RSI centres around France if nothing changes within a month.

The demonstration has been organised by a group of about 30 associations, under the umbrella name Sauvons nos Entreprises - save our businesses.

The group's president, Pascal Geay, said: "This protest aims to force our politicians to wake up to the failings of the RSI. We have no objections to paying our social charges, but not if it causes us to make a loss."

The director general of the RSI said in an interview last week that he realised that "many" of its members were not happy with the current system. He said work was under way to restructure the organisation.

However he pointed out that the number of complaints about the RSI's work had fallen by 11 per cent last year to 2,330. The RSI collects social charges for 2.1 million self-employed people.