Quelle horreur! Law threat to the 35-hour workweek

PARIS - It's being called the coup de grace for France's decadelong experiment with a 35-hour workweek - a policy that inspired both envy and ridicule in Europe and the United States, and even some copycats.

But the short workweek proved difficult to implement and was derided by some in government as a "straitjacket" on France's economy.

Now a new law lets companies negotiate more hours from employees. But it's being met with resistance, even from the employers it was meant to benefit, suggesting President Nicolas Sarkozy's headline reform may do little to boost growth.

When France first implemented the 35-hour workweek in 1998, economists well beyond the country's borders wondered: Is this the future of work in the developed world?

But instead, the ensuing decade saw rich nations' workers laboring ever more.

Even in France, workers average 41 hours a week, thanks to overtime and those workers, like farmers and the self-employed, who aren't subject to the short week. That's more than Germany or Britain - and not much less than the average 41.7 hours worked in the United States in 2006.

Previous efforts to erode France's 35-hour week have been routinely met with protests.

This time, however, workers have put up little fuss because the law went into force during the summer vacation season and it was left up to companies to apply the longer hours.

And unions have made it clear they will fight, through strikes or tough negotiations, if and when companies put it to the test.

Even businessmen who railed against the 35-hour workweek say they don't plan to make use of the new law, at least for now, fearing labor disputes like a decade ago.

The shortened week was "a very bad thing. It devalued work, it's unhealthy and difficult," said Gilles Lecointre, chief executive of Intercessio, an economic consulting firm in Paris.

But he has no intention of ditching his company's 35-hour agreement.

"At Intercessio, the negotiations over the 35 hours for salaried employees were long and terrible. It destroyed relationships," Lecointre said. "We're not going to go back through that."

Lecointre recalls bitter exchanges over a few extra minutes of work per day. The debate resembled "haggling over a carpet with a rug merchant," Lecointre said.