From a New York Post report on plans by the New York Times to lay off hundreds of staffers:
The Gray Lady is also looking at either a radical downsizing or closure of its Paris office, and has been moving people to London, where it can have better control of letting staff go, since French law makes it very difficult and expensive for companies to lay off workers, one source said.
The nice thing about being a multinational corporation such as the New York Times is that one can consolidate one's operations where the regulatory regime is friendliest to the ownership's interests. When companies move around to gain tax advantages, the Times editorially describes it as "looting" and calls for laws to prevent companies from exiting freely. But when the advantages involve labor law and the Times' own profits are at stake, somehow it's a different issue.