 The first employment contract (CPE) was designed to cut youth unemployment by allowing employers to dismiss workers under 26 within their first two years in a job.This led to a turn around by Chrirac and his Prime Minister on the April 10th saying the controversial law was to be scrapped.Chirac took the unprecedented step of signing the bill into law while at the same time calling for not applying the CPE clauses, a move with no base in the French Constitution.