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The French are set to work harder: vote revokes 35-hour week


  3. LindseyIndigo
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France's parliament has passed a law which effectively ends the country's compulsory 35-hour working week, the BBC reports.

" The new law will allow companies to strike individual deals with unions on working hours and overtime.

Since coming into office last year, President Nicolas Sarkozy has blamed the 35-hour week for damaging France's economic competitiveness.

Introduced 10 years ago by the then Socialist government, polls show most French still support the 35-hour week."

What would you rather? A statutory 35-hour working week (that's just seven hours a day!) so you didn't have to feel bad for wanting a life as well as a career, or a fiercely competitive stake in the world market?
LindseyIndigo

16 responses // The French are set to work harder: vote revokes 35-hour week

  • i say "tant pis," 35 hour week sounded fine to me. i get a bad vibe from sarkozy, he seems too american to be the president of france
    thwayne92
  • I think we'd all be better off if we had 35 hour work weeks and more time for the rest of our lives. I mean, come on, does anybody sit there on their deathbed going "I wish I spent more time at work...?"
    sgwhites
  • This is a significant change in France, one that we ought to watch play out. So many happiness-index studies love to tout the French workweek as the key to a wonderful life. But do we really need to work more per week to grow our economy? The Protestant work ethic says yes. I say no, but we need to increase our energy consumption to do it. The tractor freed farmers from long days of toil and misery. The computer freed students from the drudgery of hand writing papers. The cell phone has freed the average person from confinement within buildings, allowing them to conduct their lives where they want. But everything that we do requires energy. We have energy slaves to power the tractor, to process binary code, and to transmit conversations. The more energy slaves we have the less we actually have to do.

    Support solar energy research.
    allaturca
  • Seems logical to me. I can barely get anything done in my hour work day.
    Stevox
  • Life is more than work.
    damnneargenius
  • I wish we had a 35 hour work week... :(
    milkradio
  • The 35 hour week is only one facet of the whole picture.
    France is one of the country with the worse labor relations.

    The right to work should not be controlled to the point that even the most creative, inovative, ambitious young people have left the country in drove.

    You cannot regulate a country based on the lowest commun denominator.

    When every body is walking around with a calculator trying to do the minimum and complaining all the time, you have a problem.

    France has a long way to go. The hope for the futur is low for young people.

    There are too many people under the payroll of the government.

    The concept of public servant do not exist.They are called "fonctionnaires".

    The overall frustration is very high.

    There is a need for a new attitude. Wihout the Muslim population, France, would be decreasing in population like two of its neighboors: Spain and Germany.
    soleil10
  • i work 40 to 64 hours a week if o.t available...shit
    i took the BLOCK to the CLOCK...
    they lazy...lolol

    i have a friend french...
    don't do no o.t...
    ima playem 2mrw at work..lolol
    natdagod
  • fuck, capitalists ruin the fun for everyone.
    Betico
  • I bet they wished the voted for Royal now...

    Roll on 2012 Sarko is outta there.
    Owwmykneecap
  • about time those lazy bastards did something
    clayjj05
  • It's important to remember that in no way does more time at work mean more is getting done. Quantity does not equate to productivity when it comes to time spent in the office.
    bishopobispo
  • anybody else feeling a bit nervous about this new french president, he wants to militarize the EU, increase frances powers of war, he's a bit Napoleonic

    that has nothing to do with the article, but it does scare me
    jh64487
  • I wonder what the people in France think. They are what matters more so than the rest of the world's opinion. They are the one use to this.
    J_Jammer
  • Clouseau, would be deeply offended!
    MoonLoon
  • That's so true that more "hours" sitting in a cubical does NOT translate into more actually getting done.

    So they bumped it up 5hrs (or about 1 hr per day)

    Anyone really think that if YOUR boss forced you to stay an hour later every day you'd actually spend it working?

    It seems counter-productive for businesses because your paying more in salaries, but not much more is actually getting done.

    ----

    Also, our economy (most economies) are based on consumption.

    Exactly how much do you buy sitting at your desk as opposed to being out of the office?

    If you go home and take your kid to the park, hell, you'll probably stop by McDoanlds, buy a frisbee, buy a ticket to the zoo, etc. You're spending money and stimulating the economy, right?

    The more goods and services we buy -- the more people will get hired to meet that demand.

    If we all spend 50-60 hrs trapped in our cubicles we're not really buying/using ANY goods or services. We're just sitting here making copies, answering emails, etc. Not stimulating the economy. I imagine there are a lot of workers at Starbucks standing around in empty cafes with nothing to do because everyone is still sitting at work.

    Freeing people up to go out and do more only helps the economy. Keeping people at work longer really doesn't boost producitivity significantly (or probably at all) and just creates more time wherein people aren't buying/using goods and services.

    Its counter-productive, imho.
    crob80227

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