Guards at prisons across France went on strike to protest their working conditions on Wednesday, a day after a radicalised inmate in North-western France stabbed two guards with a knife.
The Force Ouvriere labour union said on Wednesday that prison workers had blocked the entrances and exits at 60 detention facilities.
The national prison administration said 18 institutions were affected by protests, news agency AFP reported.
By Wednesday afternoon, two institutions remained blockaded.
The union said the staff were protesting for more security for prison officials, including things like puncture-safe vests for personnel, which have been demanded for some time.
“The government is deaf to our demands,” the union employee said.
On Tuesday, a male inmate and his female partner had lingered in a special family section of Conde-sur-Sarthe prison before they attacked two guards with a ceramic knife.
The woman later died during an operation by police special forces.
French Justice Minister, Nicole Belloubet, spoke of a terrorism-motivated incident during a news conference on Tuesday.
Anti-terrorism prosecutors have taken over the investigation.
According to anti-terrorism prosecutor Remy Heitz, the prisoner wanted to avenge the death of Strasbourg Christmas market attacker Cherif Chekatt with his act on the guards.
Five people were killed and several injured when Chekatt carried out a gun and knife rampage at the market in Strasbourg on December 11.
Chekatt was shot dead by police two days later, with the militant group claiming responsibility for the attack.
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Similarly, French Economy Minister, Bruno Le-Maire presented draft legislation to the cabinet on Wednesday for a proposed tax on major internet companies.
In December, France threatened to establish its own revenue tax on major digital companies in the event that the EU 28 member states could not agree on their own by this month.
The bloc’s members had tried for months to hash out a deal on a tax but failed
Le-Maire said the tax was expected to bring in 400 million euros (452.7 million dollars) this year a sum that would progressively grow in subsequent years.
The three per cent revenue tax will apply to firms whose digital economy sales hit a double threshold of 750 million euros worldwide and 25 million euros in France.
The tax is intended to apply retroactively, beginning January 1.
A vote on the legislation is planned in the National Assembly in April.
According to the European Commission, companies like Facebook, Amazon and Google pay far less in taxes than conventional industrial and service industry firms.
In March 2018, the commission estimated that digitalised businesses face an effective tax rate of 9.5 per cent, as compared with 23.2 per cent for traditional business models.
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