French struggle to say au revoir to 35-hour law

updated 3:55 p.m. ET Sept. 3, 2008

PARIS - France's decade-long experiment with a 35-hour work week is coming to an end, sort of.

A new law allows companies to negotiate their way out of a rule that has drawn both ridicule and envy in other countries and that France's labor minister calls a "straitjacket" on the economy.

Yet the law, which took effect just before France began returning from its long summer vacation, is meeting resistance from both workers and the employers it was meant to benefit, suggesting President Nicolas Sarkozy's headline reform may do little to boost growth.

The 35-hour law wasn't just about France. It set economists well beyond its borders to wondering: Is this the future of work in the developed world? Instead, the ensuing decade saw rich nations' workers laboring ever more and more. Indeed, even French workers today average 41 hours a week of labor, despite the 35-hour rule, thanks to overtime and the time worked by those, such as farmers and the self-employed, who aren't subject to the measure.

Nuclear plant technician Mikael Perniceni figures his free time is secure, regardless of this law being called the "coup de grace" for the 35-hour week.

The 28-year-old still expects to use some of his almost eight weeks of annual paid time off to travel to Salt Lake City next year to hear the University of Utah Singers, with plenty of time left over for visiting friends and family.

The reason for his insouciance: While the law permits companies to negotiate new, longer working time agreements with employees, few employers are expected to do so, because of a widespread reluctance to relive the often fraught negotiations that led to the current working time agreements, businesses and economists say. And a tough economic climate isn't helping.

The new law is the most high-profile of a series of economic reforms promised by the conservative Sarkozy, and workers' and employers' response will be watched closely as a barometer of how much further Sarkozy can go without unleashing the fearsome street protests that have stymied past attempts at reform.

France began its experiment with a shortened work week in 1998. The idea was that by shortening the work day, employers would be forced to hire more workers in a giant work-share scheme, helping reduce the country's chronically high unemployment rate of around 10 percent.

The measure attracted considerable attention abroad, with some envy at the extra free time enjoyed by French workers offset by mocking references to the supposedly "lazy French" (despite the stereotype, the French rank among the world's most productive workers). Belgium, for example, cut its working week to 38 hours in 2003.

A report by national statistics agency Insee estimated that around 350,000 new jobs were created between 1998 and 2002 thanks to the 35-hour-week policy.

"But the boom was followed by a bust, with very slow job creation over the ensuing years, so for the whole 10-year period, the net result was zero," said Nicolas Bouzou, an economist at economic research firm Asteres.

Reforming the 35-hour law was one of Sarkozy's main pledges during last year's presidential campaign. Sarkozy says the measure was an economic mistake that did not create jobs as it was intended to do.

Lawmakers approved the new law in late July, and it came into force in mid-August, just in time for the mass return from vacation that the French refer to as "La Rentree."

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