French Gov't to Study 35-Hour Work Week (may add more hours)

[Democat]

French Gov't to Study 35-Hour Work Week

The French government ordered an impact study Tuesday of the country's 35-hour workweek — a first step toward possibly revamping one of France's boldest workplace experiments.

The shorter workweek was the signature achievement of former Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, whose Socialist government cut the hours from 39 to 35 to create jobs at a time of record unemployment.

However, France's new center-right government, as well as business executives, claim the shorter week has made France less competitive. One of the main complaints is the 35-hour workweek puts inordinate strain on smaller businesses.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=518&ncid=518&e=1&u=/ap/20031007/ap_on_re_eu/france_shorter_workweek

[Paschall]

1. Despite Chirac's good record on Iraq

He is a conservative. His government is getting ready to shuffle about 180,000 un- or underemployed workers off of a state-funded supplemental income program and dump them on local authorities, who don't have the money to handle this added client load. And he's drawn up a budget that violates EU rules on deficit limits. Yet he's cutting income taxes for the second year in a row (even though only half the French pay income tax; can you say "benefit the top 1 percent?")... once again, dumping responsibility for public services on local and regional governments who don't have the adequate funding.

Who's he blaming for his mess? The previous Socialist government of Lionel Jospin.

<snip> Last week, Budget Minister Alain Lambert blamed the shorter workweek for France's inability to meet budget deficit limits of 3 percent of gross domestic product set by the European Union. </snip>

Nonetheless, Chirac has promised repeatedly not to repeal the 35-hour work week. And the unions have already warned the government that if it tried to do so it would meet extremely stiff resistance.