Ollivier Law (1864)
올리비에 법 (1864)
A French law promulgated on 25 May 1864. Prepared by Émile Ollivier, it abolished the offence of combination dating from the Revolution and for the first time allowed peaceful strikes, while still punishing violence and infringements of "the freedom of work"; trade unions themselves were not legalised until 1884.
In depth
Since the Le Chapelier law of 1791 the French penal code had punished combinations of workers or employers to raise or lower wages. When the workers' delegation back from London in 1862 and the Manifesto of the Sixty of 1864 demanded the right of combination, Napoleon III took it up, and with Morny's backing Ollivier took charge of the bill. Despite the Council of State's reluctance it passed the Legislative Body by 221 to 36 and the Senate by 74 to 13.
The revised article 414 of the penal code punished only those who brought about or kept up a stoppage of work by violence, assault or fraud, so that other strikes ceased to be offences. It was part of a policy of winning the workers for the Empire, and much of the right and many republicans opposed it. Union chambers were tolerated only in 1868, and trade unions were legalised by the Waldeck-Rousseau law of 1884. Even after strikes were allowed, as at La Ricamarie and Aubin in 1869, they could end with soldiers firing on the strikers.