French 'don't want to put in extra hours at work'

The Telegraph ^ | 9/2/2008 | Henry Samuel in Paris

[bruinbirdman]

President Nicolas Sarkozy's key electoral promise to allow the French to "work more to earn more" has hit a major snag: most have no desire to put in extra hours to raise their wages, a poll has found.

With the economy floundering and the French consistently complaining that falling purchasing power is their main worry, only a quarter are prepared to work more to raise their standard of living.

Almost six out of ten have no desire to increase their working hours, according to a poll in Le Parisien newspaper.

Some 13 per cent would like to work less, even if that means seeing living standards drop.

The figures were published as new legislation diluting the 35-hour working week comes into force this month.

Companies can now negotiate with unions or directly with employees wishing to work longer hours – up to 48 per week. In theory, workers receive 25 per cent more for overtime, but the polls suggests that not many intend to take it.

Executives, whose working time is measured in days per year rather than hours, are even more reluctant to work more than their current ceiling of 218 days. Under the new legislation, they can now work 235 days and in some cases 282 days, with a 10 per cent increase per extra day.

Mr Sarkozy's apparent failure to instill the will to work more came as the expected growth of the French economy was revised sharply down yesterday by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to one per cent for 2008, after an earlier prediction of 1.8 per cent.

However, unlike Britain, the country is not technically in recession, which the OECD defines as two successive quarters of year-on-year negative growth.

The French government had been predicting growth of up to 2 percent.

[boogerbear]

I’m over 30 and strongly dedicated to not working OT, I like being places that aren’t work. So I get more done in 40 hours than any of my co-workers to help avoid OT.