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Paris: President Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling centre-right party demanded on Monday the abolition of France's 35-hour work week, taking aim at the controversial labour law ten years after its introduction by a Socialist government.
Sarkozy has called the law an "economic catastrophe" and regularly blames it for France's lack of competitiveness in international trade, but appears reluctant to scrap it entirely for fear of angering both unions and voters.
Looking to force the issue, the head of his Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party urged the government to let each company establish its own working conditions.
"The UMP is forcefully requesting the definitive dismantlement of the 35-hour week, and that the length of work be negotiated company by company," party secretary general Patrick Devedjian said.
A Socialist government voted in May 1998 to reduce the workweek from 39 to 35 hours at no loss of pay, despite the fact that none of their major competitors were doing likewise.
Economists have said the change has lead to a stagnation of salaries in France and hamstrung its exporters, and even some leading Socialists have questioned the wisdom of the reform.
In a bid effectively to prolong the work week, Sarkozy last year exempted companies and employees from taxes and social charges on overtime. The president, elected on the mantra that people needed "to work more to earn more," has used this as a reason for not binning the 35-hour week.
"It is not the government's intention to abolish the legal working limit because it is the base point for calculating overtime," he told parliamentarians in January.
However, most firms have failed to boost overtime despite the incentives, and a recent survey showed that the French were world champions when it came to holidays, enjoying an average of 37 days of paid holiday a year, against 27 in Germany, 26 in Britain and 14 in the United States.
Devedjian said it was time to stop trying to impose things from the top and instead allow unions and bosses establish pay and conditions in each company.
Asked if he wanted to get rid of a legal workweek, he said: "Yes. It will stop being a national system."
Such a move would certainly meet fierce resistance from unions.
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