“Taking a boss hostage is becoming an increasingly common protest gesture in France. Last year, the English boss of a car-parts factory in eastern France was held for 48 hours in his office, sleeping on a massage table and being provided with blankets and sandwiches. He said he felt like “a prisoner in Alcatraz”.

In another incident last year, police stormed an ice-cream factory in Saint-Dizier to free a manager who had been held hostage by workers angry over job cuts. At least 14 staff were injured trying to stop police releasing him.

The mood of French factory workers seeking justice and revenge has spawned France’s cult film of the year, Louise-Michel, a gothic comedy in which a group of women laid off from their factory in northern France hire a hit man to kill their boss.”