France scraps 35-hour working week

FRANCE has scrapped its 35-hour week, leaving the Socialists' work experiment in tatters. The law was phased in by the Left-wing government between 1998 and 2000 in an attempt to cut unemployment.

The hope was that firms would hire more staff to compensate for the shorter working week of others. But the jobless figure has actually risen by nearly 1% since the 35-hour week was introduced. In January unemployment hit its highest level for five years and broke through the 10% level.

Despite massive opposition from the unions, the Right-wing UMP party won a vote yesterday to abolish the law, which it described as a 'historic error that crippled the competitiveness of the French economy'.

MPs approved the new law by 350 votes to 135, with overwhelming support coming from President Jacques Chirac's conservatives, who dominate both parliamentary chambers. The bill allows employers to negotiate deals with staff to increase working time by 220 hours a year in return for better pay.

The new workplace rules restore the 39-hour week but allow overtime to take this up to 48 hours - the maximum under European Union law - while preserving employees' rights to work 35 hours if they choose.

Socialist MP Alain Vidalies called the reform 'economically absurd and socially unjust'. But Herve Novelli, from the governing Union for a Popular Movement, said the 35 hour week brought a 'salary stagnation that is now difficult to emerge from'.

According to a 2003 survey by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and developemnt, of 25 industrialised countries, only Norwegian and Dutch employees worked less time each year than the French, who worked an average 1,431 hours.German workers put in 1,446 hours, British 1,673 hours, Americans 1,792 hours and Koreans 2,390 hours.