So, if I reading this correctly, the French management has to cut jobs and, since it is about impossible to fire a French worker, they are making the cuts in the UK.
Tough blow for the UK workers but you have to think that is the risk you take when you work for a company that faces oppressive labor laws back at home, which don't protect your particular job. If I were in business I wouldn't want anything to do with France.
I would imagine the underground economy in France is huge.