France's 35 hour week
French prime minister Leonel Jospin announced on Friday October 10, a new bill for the legal reduction of the working week without loss of salary. The president of the employers organisation CNPF resigned, a sign of employers' deep opposition to the new measures.
All the country's trade unions and associations of the unemployed have been calling for some kind of reduced working time. But while the main unemployed associations (AC!, APEIS, MNCP) are united in their demand for a 32 hour week tied to job creation, and without loss of purchasing power for wage-earners, there is no consensus between the three trade union confederations.
This is unfortunate, since only mobilisation by wage-earners and the unemployed will overcome the many obstacles in the path of a reduction in working hours with the creation of new jobs.
The legislative timetable given for negotiations (2 years for business employing more than 10 people, 4 years for the rest) risks being used by employers to apply job flexibility and intensify the work routine, cutting out any positive effects of a reduction in the working week.
Jospin has also stated that negotiations should include "the organisation of work" and "changes in the working schedule." There is a great risk that business will seize new possibilities,
Europe's FBI in action * or the Autonoom Centrum, Bilderdijkstraat 165, 1053 KP Amsterdam, Netherlands Tel: +31-20-6126172, Fax: +3120-6168967, E-mail: <ac @xs4all.nl> Documents on the the repression and subsequent protests are at: <http://www.xs4all.nl/~ac/euengzw/index.htm> such as the cancellation of a fixed working day, to avoid hiring new labour. This will also cause a deterioration in working conditions, because wage-earners will be forced to work according to the number of hours and length of time chosen by the employer.
Although the government has declared its intention to re-examine abuses arising from previous legislation encouraging part-time employment, nothing has been clarified in these new measures. Meanwhile, part-time work is increasingly imposed and wide spread, to the disadvantage of women in particular.
Jospin stated that 35 hours will be introduced without loss of salary, but would "be tied to a moderation of salaries." In other words, a wage freeze, and a lost of purchasing power. Combined with generous financial incentives for businesses introducing shorter working hours.
The bill on the 35 hour week will not be presented before the French Assembly before the beginning of 1998. By that time, wage-earners, associations and trade unionists should have time to build together a mass mobilisation equal to the stakes involved
On a European level too, the stakes are high: the creation of a movement for the reduction in working hours concerning everyone. [CA/JD] *
* Britain