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MPs scrap France's 35-hour week | MPs scrap France's 35-hour week |
(about 10 hours later) | |
France's parliament has passed a law which effectively ends the country's compulsory 35-hour working week. | France's parliament has passed a law which effectively ends the country's compulsory 35-hour working week. |
The new law will allow companies to strike individual deals with unions on working hours and overtime. | The new law will allow companies to strike individual deals with unions on working hours and overtime. |
Since coming into office last year, President Nicolas Sarkozy has blamed the 35-hour week for damaging France's economic competitiveness. | Since coming into office last year, President Nicolas Sarkozy has blamed the 35-hour week for damaging France's economic competitiveness. |
Introduced 10 years ago by the then Socialist government, polls show most French still support the 35-hour week. | Introduced 10 years ago by the then Socialist government, polls show most French still support the 35-hour week. |
Aimed at cutting unemployment, it was credited with creating some 350,000 new jobs between 1998 and 2002 - but the state had to provide billions of euros in aid. | |
Mr Sarkozy, analysts say, has been careful not to do away with the popular 35-hour working week completely. | |
'Pandora's box' | |
The new measures - which allow individual firms to agree a maximum number of working days, overtime and time off in lieu directly with staff - are expected to come into force at the end of August. | |
"Companies will at last be able to operate a management policy based on a secure legal framework, it's a remarkable advance for the economy," said Daniele Giazzi of the governing UMP party. | "Companies will at last be able to operate a management policy based on a secure legal framework, it's a remarkable advance for the economy," said Daniele Giazzi of the governing UMP party. |
In the big companies, no-one wants to renegotiate the 35-hours and re-open Pandora's Box Union leader Philippe Jaeger Getting the French to work | |
Having been approved earlier this month by the National Assembly - France's lower house of parliament - the measures passed a vote in the Senate - the upper house - late on Wednesday. | Having been approved earlier this month by the National Assembly - France's lower house of parliament - the measures passed a vote in the Senate - the upper house - late on Wednesday. |
The bill was supported by the Senate's centre-right majority but opposed by the opposition Socialists. | The bill was supported by the Senate's centre-right majority but opposed by the opposition Socialists. |
The Senate also adopted other key measures reforming rules on strikes and unemployment benefits, tightening up the criteria for receiving them. | |
Unions say the new measures will mainly affect smaller and medium-sized firms. | |
"In the big companies, no-one wants to renegotiate the 35-hours and re-open Pandora's Box," said Philippe Jaeger, of managers' union CFE-CGC. |