Early evidence also suggested that one of the soldiers may have broken live firing rules.

BBC: Saville inquiry timeline

If anything, they are looking for more protection and higher pay, not for easier firing rules or more competition.

ECONOMIST: France

Much of what economists know about structural unemployment has been gleaned from the sorry history of continental Europe, where fat benefits and rigid firing rules dulled labour-market efficiency.

ECONOMIST: Joblessness in America

The rules against firing that stave off sharp rises in unemployment may mean that fewer jobs are created in new industries.

ECONOMIST: Europe's economies

Strict rules against firing will be dropped for new hires in companies with up to ten employees, and not merely five, as the government had proposed.

ECONOMIST: German reforms

Some blame their Lib Dem coalition partners for watering down rules on hiring and firing.

BBC: UK Politics

The survey of each country covers the ease or difficulty of doing business by a number of measures, such as procedures needed to start a legal business, rules concerning the hiring and firing of workers, registering property and enforcing commercial contracts.

FORBES: This Money Won't Buy Happiness

It is national rules on minimum wages, hiring and firing and the like that now gum up the jobs market.

ECONOMIST: European Union

Unable to eliminate seniority rules, on February 22nd he issued letters firing every one of the city's 1, 900 teachers.

ECONOMIST: Education policy