23/06/2016 BBC Business Live

Live from London, that's our top story on Thursday 23rd June.

There has been a string of protests over recent weeks in Paris, this is

the last time they went on the march. But is a radical shake up

long overdue or is this railroading workers' writes?

Also in the programme: It's decision day in the UK.

The polls are open in the country's historic vote on its membership

The first results are expected overnight tonight - around 4am.

And here's how markets are looking as trade gets underway in Europe.

As you can see, markets across the region are higher, we will talk you

through the winners and losers. And we'll be talking to a man

who has a rubbish solution for reducing poverty,

improving the environment and making money, cashing

in on plastic waste. And are pay rises a thing

of the past? New figures show firms are looking

for other ways to motivate So we want to know -

when's the last time Let us know, just use

the hashtag #BBCBizLive. We start in Paris, where trade

unions are about to lead tens of thousands of people

in a march against proposed changes Figures in the last hour suggest

businesses need all the help they can get with activity once again

slowing across the country. A preliminary reading of a monthly

purchasing index fell to 49.4 from just above 50 in May. To explain

what they mean, any number below 50 is a construction -- contraction

where one above 50 shows great. So what is being proposed in the Labour

laws -- labour laws? France will keep its famous 35-hour

working week, but only Firms will be able to negotiate

with local trade unions on more or fewer hours from week to week,

up to a maximum of 46 hours. The changes will also make it

easier to lay off workers. It's hoped companies will take

on more people if they know they can Employers will also be given more

leeway to negotiate holidays and maternity leave -

which is currently heavily Proof that reform is needed, we have

mentioned those acres, the unemployment rate in France above

10%, more than doubled the UK and Germany.

Tomasz Michalski, Associate Professor of Economics at the HEC

Business School in Paris, joins me now.

This is the latest round of strikes protesting these labour laws, will

they achieve anything they have not done in previous strikes? I doubt

pushing forward its agenda. They pushing forward its agenda. They

don't have to get a boat in the parliament, they can force it with

the threat of dissolution of parliament and it seems that the

Government is keen on passing this law. There is a political logic to

it. When we talk about political logic, forgive me if we are talking

about this from the outside looking in, it seems that up until now the

labour unions have had things quite good, there have been protections

for workers that do not exist elsewhere in the world, is this

simply a harmonisation, bringing front into line with international

standards or is the government proposing things that front objects

to because they are not the same elsewhere? Basically France is the

last largest economy in the euro zone that has not reformed its

antiquated labour laws, so this would be bringing it more towards

where we are in Germany, Italy, Spain, but even falling short of

that. We are really talking about cosmetic changes, very small changes

to the labour code and even this cannot pass peacefully, Wright would

wish a much larger overhaul than I believe would be drastically changed

to prepare it for the 21st-century. How much have the current labour

laws contributed to the economic problems in France? There are

several things, for example the inflexibility in hiring and firing,

the high cost of firing, the economic uncertainty about, for

example, classification of firing because workers can seek

compensation for unlawful dismissal. The last one I mentioned will be

countered by this law, that there are lots of other things that are

totally untouched, especially because this is a socialist

Government and does not want to anger the base even more. Even then,

we see that it cannot pass in the current political environment, which

is really surprising not only for outsiders but also for people who

live here. OK, it is good to talk to you, thank you for explaining that.

We will keep a close eye on events in Paris as those strikes and

protests continue, more on that later.

Polls have opened in an historic referendum on the UK's membership

of the European Union - whether it should stay or leave.

46.5 million people are entitled to take part in the vote -

It is only the third nationwide referendum in UK history and follows

a four-month battle for votes between the Leave

South Korean car-maker Kia has topped a US quality survey.

It's the first time in 27 years a non-luxury brand has taken

The survey questioned over 80,000 drivers who'd bought a new car

this year about problems during their first 90

Kia came first - pushing last year's winner Porsche into second place.

The Smart car, owned by Daimler, came bottom.

The US Presidential hopeful Donald Trump will reopen his

$200-million Scottish golf resort on Friday.

Police and security teams in Ayrshire are preparing for protests

More than half-a-million people have signed an online petition calling

for Mr Trump to be banned from the UK.

A quick look at the Business Live page for you.

I was just going to say I could think of lots of things to say about

that story but I will be good! We need to explain today that because

of reporting restrictions, as the polls are open in the UK, we have to

be careful as to what we say as a broadcaster about the referendum.

You might be wondering about that, there will be no referendum talk on

the live page of the programme. A welcome relief, this time tomorrow

it will all change! So let's build you up to date with

the other news that is appearing today, with the lack of referendum

news. I want to talk about this story about Viacom, the media giant,

there has been an announcement that the directors can stay in place, it

is related to the mental competence of the 93-year-old controlling

shareholder, so that is worth watching because there has been a

big boardroom tussle between those directors about who is in charge and

clearly it controls a lot of advertising revenue and spend in the

media markets, so one worth watching.

A row is brewing between two superpowers - China and the US -

Robin Brant is in Shanghai following this for us.

What is China alleging? The government in Beijing says that

the steel market is in a state of overprotection, the latest in a row

between Washington, DC and Beijing that has also taken in Japan, India

and the European Union, other sizeable steel producers. It is

about peace slump in demand for steel and how countries are dealing

with it. Yesterday the international Trade Commission ruled that it

believed China's steel producers were damaging those in the United

States which clears the way possibly for the imposition by the Government

in Washington, DC sizeable import duties on Chinese steel, possibly

over 500%, essentially meant to prevent Chinese steel producers from

dumping, as America sees it, their access steel in the United States.

As I said, China heading back saying it believes the US market has been

overprotected. What is interesting in this is China is going through

significant attempts to reform the supplies died, state-owned

emphasised -- state owned Enterprises, it is looking to cut by

15%, 150 million tonnes, it's steel production in this country over the

next five years but in recent months, despite hearing politicians

talking about closing 60 steel mills, there has been an uptick in

steel production in China so there is suspicion abroad about China's

commitment to reduce the amount of steel it produces and the amount

that goes abroad. There is quite a bit of suspicion

depending on which country you are looking at. Thank you, good to see

you. Let's look at the markets. It has been a fairly positive day in

Asia and in Europe. One of the big winners for the McKay is Sharp,

rumours it will come up with some new restructuring plans. -- one of

the big winners for the Nikkei. On the mind of everyone in the

financial market is the UK referendum, we have mentioned the

polls are open, the France the data this morning was pretty dire but it

has not hit trade in Paris, which is up almost 1%, but manufacturing and

the service sector contracting. Samira Hussain has the details about

what's ahead on Wall Street today. Some economic data today will likely

show Americans are buying fewer new homes. New-home sales are expected

to show they have fallen by 8% in the month of May, a pretty

significant decline from the month of April when we saw that sales

jumped more than 16%. That was the highest level since January 2000

eight. Also, remember BlackBerry, the

once ubiquitous smartphone? It is reporting earnings on Thursday, the

company's expansion into software has so far not been able to stop its

sharp decline in overall revenue, so BlackBerry has said

that its top goal is to make its device is profitable and it has

given itself a deadline of March next year to do so.

Samir are keeping us up to date with events in Wall Street. James Bevan

has joined us to talk through what is happening in Europe, Sally looked

at the numbers earlier. Some optimism despite the French PMI

figures suggesting that services and manufacturing are not doing well?

The manufacturing numbers were expected to be poor, this is a

global issue which we have heard with China and the US, oversupply,

deflation, it is hard to be optimistic about manufacturing

numbers. The service numbers were a shock, people were not expecting to

be given news that services are heading for a downturn. It is

interesting, Samir mentioned above in the United States, the Federal

Reserve stress test for the big banks, will that be looked at, or,

given the event in the UK today, will it be a question of burying the

bad news? I don't think we will expect bad news from the States,

what happened after the global financial crisis was the troubled

assets programme which cleared out the stables and made the US banks

solvent and respectable. There is a bigger question over the banks in

Europe, particularly peripheral Europe, where the asset management

community has not been doing enough to face those risks. In the US they

have been hard on the banks but the results mean those banks are in a

stronger position perhaps? Absolutely, they were early to the

table with real measures to sort out the challenge and I think they will

be going great guns. We have not had the great downturn in the old price

which meant well-run companies like Wells Fargo had to come to the table

and say, sorry, we have dodgy loans to the oil industry and may not be

making the profits we expected. Interesting, there is a lot going on

today, a busy one! James, thank you for now. Still to

come, we will speak to a man who has set up a business turning plastic

waste into money whilst also giving an income to some of the world's

poorest communities. More on that in just a few minutes.

You are with Business Live from BBC News.

First let's talk about Tesco. It's the biggest retailer in Britain, it

had a rough ride. It posted its worst loss in its history in 2014,

six 4p. Plagued by an accounting scandal since then. There were

sounds of a turnaround. And a new boss, David Lewis. Sales are growing

again, it has reported two quarters in a row of sales growth, the first

time they've been able to do that in five years. Explain this for us.

We're getting excited, two consecutive quarters. There was a

time Tesco could do no wrong, never mind two consecutive quarters.

Clearly, the UK business has found it incredibly difficult over the

last two years, much greater competition from the other

supermarket as well as Aldi and little. And big structural and

financial issues. -- Lidl. Lots of disposals and restructuring.

Disposed of around nine different businesses since Philip Clark left.

A lot of the focus and attention and money is being reinvested into the

offer for UK supermarket shoppers. They are beginning to vote with

their feet and return to Tesco. To what extent can David Luiz take

the glory? E was new on the scene and shortly after his arrival the

accounting scandal emerged. Tough for him from the beginning. Lots of

it was external to Tesco, Aldi and Lidl's. If focused attention on to

the UK business, big investment getting stuff back onto the staff

floor. Service level has improved, availability has improved, and

customer satisfaction has increased as a result. He can take credit for

some of it. The time he took over, couldn't have got much worse. Brian

Roberts talking us through the Tesco numbers.

If you need more on the BBC website, it is to flog off Harris and tool,

which will go to cafe Nero. Acquired at the height of the expansion plans

for Tesco, but things now looking very different for the retailer. Our

top story today, French business activity unexpectedly slowed in June

for the first time in four months as waves of strikes get underway again

in Paris. Protesting against changes to labour laws. They make it easier

to hire and fire staff amongst other things, protesters marching through

Paris in the latest series of demonstrations against those

changes. We'll watch very closely. Is there money to be made from

rubbish? Any recycling plant and refuse business will tell you there

is, big money. What if the money is made from the rubbish itself? Stay

with us, we'll explain. David Katz is the founder of the plastic bag, a

social enterprise alleviating extreme property by making money

from plastic waste. There's plenty around, 8 million metric tonnes of

plastic waste it is thought enter the oceans every year. It encourages

residents of poor communities to collect plastic that litters

beaches, they can turn it into currency. They trade in the material

at the cycling centres and can receive various things I could cook

in oil, or get firms charged. To make money, the start-up recycles

the plastic and sells it to bigger businesses, generating revenue that,

of course, also means it's helping the environment. David Katz, founder

of the plastic bag, is with us. Thank you, good morning. We've

touched on how it works, explain where in the world this operates.

Plastic in oceans affect a lot of places, talk us through the biggest

areas when it comes to the bank. The plastic bag is in Haiti, the poorest

country in the Western Hemisphere. We have a chain of recycling markets

there and continue to build to encourage the collection. If you've

ever been in a place with extreme poverty you see there happens to be

an abundance of waste as well. In those countries where they don't and

can't afford a solid waste infrastructure, that's what we

provide. Operating in Haiti in earnest, I understand Brazil... It

is next on the list, urban implement a share, working in Sao Paulo. Low

recycling rates in Brazil, certainly an environmental concern there. And

the Philippines. The Philippines and Indonesia after that, 500 million

people between those countries. Some of the most plastic that is entering

the ocean is contributed by them. This is about getting local

communities to improve their community to make a bit of money on

the side, who buys the end product? We provide social cause, give

organisations and opportunity to exhibit a true social responsibility

through action. Many people want to implement some process to donate

money but this gives them a chance to connect with the consumer and use

a plastic material that has helped people transcend poverty. It's a

great opportunity, gathering everybody together. They get

together, their customer gets together, let's say it's a shampoo

bottle, when you take a bottle off the shelf, you are helping somebody

in poverty. Why did you decide to do this? Excellent question, I've grown

up at the edge of the ocean, it's where I'm from, I've seen it just in

our lifetime. Plastic is our generation. We've just seen it

continue to pollute the bellies of birds. Many watching will say, great

idea, but where do you begin? Many are passionate about the problem is,

how do you start? Excellent question. It's the... How do you eat

and elephant? One bite at a time. I was overwhelmed when I had the idea

to change the world, alleviate the pressure of plastic flowing into the

ocean. It came in the idea we needed to reveal the value in the plastic

waste. If you come across a bar of gold on the ground you have no way

to use it as currency, do you pick it up? No, you don't. It's what we

do with plastic, we provide the opportunity for it to be monetised.

I wish we could talk more, best of luck with the project, sounds really

interesting. We have to move on, as is always the

case. Never enough time. We are going to show the viewers this

amazing landing, aren't we? The solar panel plane. No, we're going

to show them the amazing clip we talked about, how to get in touch

with us on the programme. We'll show you the solar powered plane in

another time. The business live pages where you can stay ahead of

all of the breaking business News, we'll keep you up-to-date with the

latest details with insight and analysis from the BBC's team of

editors around the world. We want to hear from you, too, get involved on

the BBC business live website. If you do want to see that claim,

check out the website. It's amazing! It's about a solar powered plane

that has been flying around the world. Can I say? We were waiting

for that plane to land all morning and it landed during my world

business report, touched down in Seville. They timed it perfectly so

I could have that moment. Anyway, let's move on. Let's talk papers,

lots to get through, not referendum related, which many we'll be glad to

hear. I can hear you cheering. Pay rises, the question we've been

asking, when is the last time you got a pay rise? Businesses say it's

about the motivational factors, is it really? Certainly people need to

be motivated to contribute to companies, keeping a job is for many

people are challenging this day and age. Global outsourcing issues mean

people who have done jobs that can be replicated elsewhere have

competition the like of which they've never seen. We're at the

cusp of an interesting challenge, as to how much we are global in the way

we look at these issues, and what is the Federation ship between business

owners and staff. We've had viewers getting involved in the

conversation, thanks for getting in touch. John says he hasn't had a pay

rise in four years and isn't motivated. Guerrero says non-cash

rewards are good as part of a mixed at world help getting a mortgage,

show me the money. That's always the issue, businesses might want to

think they are caring and sharing what it comes down to what pays the

bills. The cost of living for many is rising. Speaking about cost of

living, this is in the Washington Post, the cost of a wedding dress.

We're not going to talk about weddings. Things specifically

targeted for other things are way more expensive. If you bought a

normal dress it would have a certain price, put wedding on the front and

it is three times more expensive. Absolutely, and recognised strategy

companies have two price for very specific markets. You always pay a

premium if you are seen as a soft touch. It's interesting going back

to the issue of what people are paid, a large chunk of the world is

in deflation. If the products you are selling have falling prices, the

capacity to pay the workforce more isn't there. There is a realism test

behind this. It's an interesting article. If you are organising a

wedding or event, you have been advised to not classify it as a

wedding until the last moment when you show up because then you get a

lower price. I don't think it's entirely unfair you pay more because

they fear is at weddings are not the same at corporate events. -- because

behaviour at weddings is not the same as corporate events. We'll see

you very soon, goodbye.