Timework thesis, anti- "lump of labor theory".
CB
((((((
France's 35-Hour Week Changing Things
by Robert Graham
Financial Times
August 28, 2001
The 35-hour week is changing French business more
widely than expected, writes Robert Graham - Aug 28
2001 00:00:00
Empty city centres on a Friday afternoon; a rise in
impulse shopping; new workplace practices: the
introduction of a 35-hour week is having a profound
impact on French business and society.
Introduced by Lionel Jospin's government in 1998, the
legislation already covers almost half the country's
15.1m workforce and applies to nearly 65 per cent of
companies employing more than 20 people. In four years'
time, the reduced working week will be extended to small
companies.
Those covered by the 35-hour week - or, more accurately,
1,600 working hours a year - are able to accumulate
between 11 and 16 days' extra holiday a year, by means of
entire days off, half-days, reduced working hours spread
over a week or month and extended holidays.
The result is the biggest increase in leisure time since
the 1936 Popular Front government. As a government-
inspired measure, it has no recent parallel in Europe. It
has produced a new class of person known by the acronym
"Rttiste" - someone benefiting from the RTT, or reduction
du temps de travail.
Take the case of Patricia, who runs client relations in a
Paris bank branch. "I now get the first Monday in every
month off. The good thing is I have more time with my
family; but because the bank has to manage a huge staff
rota it means I can't switch any of my days off. I'm
stuck with my Monday."
A study for the ministry of labour and social affairs by
Dares, a research institute, shows six out of every 10
employees affected have their time off arranged by their
employer well in advance. The same report revealed that
64 per cent added their extra day to the weekends and
public holidays. For many companies, this so-called
"bridge", or combination of public holidays and days off,
made May a dead month.
For employees, Friday is the most sought-after day off.
Wednesday is preferred next, especially by women with
families, since schools have a half-day. Companies try to
allocate either a Monday or a Friday to reduce mid-week
absences and disruption. Companies with a large regional
presence tend to arrange important meetings at
headquarters for mid-week to ensure a full turn-out.
In Paris over the past six months the thinning out of the
city on Friday is ever more noticeable. Travel agents
report a sharp increase in people booking short breaks.
Leisure experts also point to the 18 per cent increase
last year of camper van purchases (compared with an
average 12 per cent across Europe); while sales of
caravans and mobile homes sold jumped from 12,000 to
20,000.
Most of this newly acquired leisure is being spent in and
around the home. In a pioneering study on consumer habits
under the 35-hour week, consultants Euro RSCG have found
men view their new time off as temps libre (free time)
while the women treat it generally as temps libere
(freed-up time). Men, according to this survey, have
become more prone to impulse buying.
The consultants conclude that significant changes in
shopping habits are on the way: "Shopping centres outside
cities risk losing out as consumers have more time to
shop in the week and will spend less of their time
devoted to Saturday shopping for the whole week. Inner-
city shops, on the other hand, are likely to gain as
leisure shopping increases, particularly among young
people."
Labour ministry research claims that 59 per cent of those
switching to the 35-hour week feel their lives have
improved. Nevertheless, French unions note some
disadvantages: "It can result in a worsening of work
conditions and life of employees, especially the less
protected ones," observes the CFDT, the most enthusiastic
of the three main union federations, about the 35-hour
week.
Unions complain companies have made up for shorter
working hours by trimming breaks, increasing job
flexibility and demanding greater productivity. The
labour ministry's research shows 63 per cent of those
polled feel more stressed at work, while 67 per cent say
they are having to do too much in too little time.
Skilled and managerial employees, known as cadres, are
proving to be the most reluctant to embrace the 35-hour
week, even though they work the longest hours. Before the
legislation was introduced, the average French working
week, including overtime, was about 41 hours; but cadres
were working five hours more.
But if they reduce this load, many complain, their jobs
become disjointed and "task-oriented work" becomes
disrupted. As a result, the government is drafting
legislation which extends the flexibility of the 35-hour
week by allowing managers 180 hours annual overtime
against the usual 130 hours. This special treatment has
formalised a divide within the French workforce. The
second 35-hour week law last year of Martine Aubry, the
then labour minister, refers for the first time in
legislation to the cadres - accepting that they are a
discrete category like management, and creating a
division of class or earning power in a country that
prides itself on the republican principles of egalite and
fraternite. Despite initial hostility to the 35-hour week
from Medef, the employers' federation, large companies
have transformed what threatened to be an extra labour
cost into a means for raising productivity and holding
down wages. Moreover, business has wrung extra subsidies
from government to underwrite higher social security
costs.
Just as significant, they have used the introduction of
the shorter working week to impose wage moderation. In
almost a third of cases, according to Dares, wages were
frozen on the introduction of the "RTT" to offset the
effect of paying a 39-hour week for 35-hours worked. For
some 8 per cent of employees, wages have even fallen.
None of these effects of the 35-hour week were taken
fully into consideration in October 1997 when the
proposal was launched. Back then, the emphasis was on the
political gesture and using reduced working hours as a
stimulus to job creation.
The state-run planning commission estimated in June that
one in six new jobs had been linked to the 35-hour week.
With measures of the previous Alain Juppe government
included, it concluded that, between 1996 and 2000, the
net effect of the 35-hour week was the 265,000 extra
jobs.
Critics counter that such job creation can be explained
by employers taking advantage of tax breaks for companies
that adopt the 35-hour week and hire staff. They also
point to France's robust economic growth. Furthermore,
they say the cost to the state will reach close to
FFr95bn (£9bn) this year and probably more than FFr110bn
within two years. Even in the 2001 budget, the cost is
not fully funded because the government has yet to win
approval from the unions and Medef to dig into the social
security surpluses to make up the shortfall.
This price tag will increase as the changes embrace the
public sector. The health service will have to recruit
between 30,000 and 50,000 more staff over the next three
years to extend the 35-hour week to hospitals and nursing
homes. This is one of the most delicate issues facing the
government this autumn.
Just as sensitive is the extension of the shorter working
week to 1.08m small businesses - particularly bakeries,
restaurants, garages, shops and other service industries
employing fewer than 20 people. Small companies are due
to begin a transition to the 35-hour week in January.
Without dispensations on overtime, small businesses say,
they will be unable to function. The government will
almost certainly have to make concessions here and offer
extra tax breaks. Small businesses lie at the heart of
French life. The transformations wrought by the 35-hour
week so far will meet greater resistance if they are
threatened.
© Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2001.
