French take step towards full manhood

France Abolishing Its 35-Hour Workweek

PARIS - France took a big step toward liberalizing its rigid labor laws Tuesday as lawmakers voted to effectively dismantle the 35-hour workweek, cherished by workers [The Ponderosa: "Workers": French for "lazy pantywaists". ] but despised by many employers and potential investors.

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The new law will give employers more latitude to strike labor agreements that call for more than a 35-hour workweek, a flagship policy of the former Socialist-led government that gave many people more leisure time — but also fueled anxiety about France's declining competitiveness and soaring unemployment, currently at 10 percent.
[The Ponderosa: In other words -- The French, as superior to the rest of us as they believe they are, are not immune to the immutable laws of economics]
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Almost a million people joined strikes and demonstrations earlier this month to defend the 35-hour workweek and protest other perceived threats to their working conditions and pay. [The Ponderosa: OK -- perhaps FULL manhood is a ways off. ] The antipathy could spill over into a May referendum on the new EU constitution, which the government supports.

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"It won't be the employee that chooses, it's the employer that decides whether there's work or not." [The Ponderosa: Welcome to Life. ]

Jouan believes the main impact of the change will be felt when, or if, France's economy picks up and companies choose to increase hours instead of hiring. "That's our problem with this reform," he said. "It's just not an answer to unemployment." [The Ponderosa: Paul Krugman's French cousin? ]

Left-wing lawmakers also criticized the proposal. Socialist lawmaker Alain Vidalies called it "economically absurd and socially unjust." [The Ponderosa: Which is to say, commonsensical.]

Most concede, however, that the original 35-hour workweek — introduced on a voluntary basis in 1998 and made compulsory two years later — has failed to create the promised millions of jobs. [The Ponderosa: Um ... DUH! Someone slept --er, ont dormi or WHATEVER -- through Econ 101.]

A parliamentary committee chaired by conservative deputy Herve Novelli last year claimed the shorter workweek had cost the state upward of $13 billion a year. It also disputed a labor ministry report that it had created 350,000 jobs in its first five years. Novelli welcomed Tuesday's vote, saying the 35-hour law had brought a "salary stagnation that is now difficult to emerge from."

According to a 2003 OECD survey of 25 industrialized countries, only Norwegian and Dutch employees worked less time each year than the French, who put in an average 1,431 hours. In Germany — which also has a 35-hour basic workweek — workers clocked an average 1,446 hours, while British employees worked 1,673 hours, Americans 1,792 hours and Koreans 2,390 hours. [The Ponderosa: Damn ... we gotta match them Koreans! ]

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