AUT: France enacts 35-hour work-week (fwd)

["Harry M. Cleaver" <hmcleave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Movin' in the right direction, still a ways to go.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 19 May 1998 18:48:40 -0700 (PDT)
From: MichaelP <papadop@xxxxxxxx>
To: "unlikely.suspects":  ;
Subject: France enacts 35-hour work-week

London Times   May 20 1998


   A CONTROVERSIAL Bill to reduce the working week from 39 hours to 35
   was passed by the French National Assembly yesterday in a move
   described by many economists and business leaders as economic suicide.

   Dismissing protests that the law will harm competitiveness and
   aggravate the migration of young professionals across the Channel, the
   Socialist-led Assembly ratified the Government's election promise to
   cut the working week without reducing wages by a show of hands.
   Members of the governing coalition - Socialists, Communists and Greens
   - voted for the Bill while the centre-right opposition voted against.

   The Bill had produced 75 hours of debate, with the Gaullists arguing
   that it would have no effect on France's crippling unemployment levels
   of around 12 per cent and might even increase joblessness. The
   Government, however, claims that the measure will create between
   210,000 and 280,000 extra jobs over five years.

   The measure was originally championed by Lionel Jospin, the Socialist
   Prime Minister, as a way to reduce unemployment, although at one point
   late last year even he appeared to back away from it, describing the
   Left's election slogan "Work 35 hours get paid for 39" as
   "anti-economic".

   Under the terms of the law, all firms with more than 20 employees must
   introduce the 35-hour week by 2000. Firms with fewer than 20 workers
   will be allowed until 2002 to implement the measure. More than 15
   million workers are estimated to be affected.

   The law includes no details on how it should be implemented, leaving
   management and trade unions to negotiate the terms. In 1999 practical
   details will be set out, based on the experience of companies that
   have adopted the measures in the interim.

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