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

[CactusCarlos]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/2669584/French-dont-want-to-put-in-extra-hours-at-work.html

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

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 CSA poll published in the 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 per cent.

The slump is threatening to derail Mr Sarkozy's reforms, a raft of which are coming into effect this month. It could also see France breach the European Union's 3 per cent public deficit ceiling this year. The country's budget this year was based on projected growth of 2.25 per cent.

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

The beauty of a free market is: if you are willing to lower your standard of living by working fewer hours...you can!

Of course the opposite is true as well.

What the lazy commies fear is if they allow others to work longer they themselves will be cast in a bad light and thus be less attractive to employers and thus not be offered below linear-scaled compensation for their efforts. In other words: they fear progressive compensation for those willing to work harder.

[thundley4]

Does the DUmp have many French members?

[DumbAss Tanker]

Does the DUmp have many French members?

There have been some in the past, for sure, but mostly they are just 'kindred spirits.'