France adopts law ending 35-hr week

The French Parliament has adopted a major economic reform that effectively ends the country’s mandatory 35-hour work week, in a Senate vote.

The French Parliament has adopted a major economic reform that effectively ends the country’s mandatory 35-hour work week, in a Senate vote.

The bill was supported by the upper house’s Right-wing majority of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s UMP party, but opposed by the Socialists.

Details of how many Senators were present and how many backed the law on Wednesday night were not immediately available from the Parliament, but were to be published later.

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Senators also adopted other key reforms which change rules on strikes, tighten criteria for unemployment payments, and free up the economy with plans aimed at bringing down the cost of living by boosting competition.

The measures were approved by the National Assembly lower house earlier this month and now become law with the backing of the Senate.

The reform most contested by the Socialists and by trades unions is the move to let companies ditch the 35-hour work week, a measure brought in by a Socialist Government 10 years ago and denounced by conservatives as a drag on France’s competitivity.

The new law maintains the working week at 35 hours, but gives businesses the right to negotiate directly with employees to decide their working hours. The 35-hour week was aimed at cutting unemployment and the French statistics institute INSEE said it created 350,000 new jobs between 1998 and 2002, but at the cost of billions of euros in state aid to companies.