Nicolas Sarkozy wants to put France back to work

[Joanne98]

Source: spcm

Paris, May 07: France`s President-elect Nicolas Sarkozy says he wants to put France back to work, using the five-year mandate he secured today to spur economic growth through tax cuts and market-based reforms.

The right-wing former Interior Minister, who defeated socialist rival Segolene Royal, has vowed to confront head-on France`s dubious distinction of being "the European country that works the least".

In the face of existing legislation restricting the working week to 35 hours, Sarkozy wants to give workers a chance "to work more to earn more."

Without scrapping the 35-hour week, he would allow employers to boost overtime pay by 25 percent, with the extra hours exempt from taxes and social charges.

The goal would be to strengthen consumer purchasing power, galvanize economic momentum and thereby slash France`s 8.3 percent jobless rate, among the highest in the Eurozone.




Read more: http://www.spcm.org/Journal/spip.php?article10549

[ohio2007]

1. OT $$ after working 35 hrs ?

And supposedly it won't be taxed. We will see

[uppityperson]

4. As it stands, over 35 hr/wk gets more heavily taxed, leading to less take home pay.

He wants to decrease those taxes so people can take home the same amount/hr for working 40 hrs vs 35 hrs/wk.

[Joanne98]

8. Race to the bottom!

[POAS]

9. sounds like a progressive tax system with

all the onus on the hourly and mid-level salaried people.

Why base this on hours worked and not on earnings so that a low wage cleaning lady isn't taxed disroportionally to a high wage engineer (for example).

[ohio2007]

10. They are very generous with the vacation over there. ( and lost time )

Five weeks of vacation a year? maybe more with more time on the job ? Very generous with sick leave also.

[Alcibiades]

15. The are not generous at all

Rather, it is US employers who are stingy.

[La_Fourmi_Rouge]

20. Amen!

Even with 6 weeks of vacation a year and working 35 hour a week, the French are among the most productive workers on the planet.

[Daphne08]

26. You are correct about this. n/t

[heliarc]

33. Yep... nt

[Warren Stupidity]

16. The idea was to increase employment and reduce the work week.

The goal of life ought to not be "work more hours" but "experience more of what life has to offer". The people of France have picked the wrong path here.

[uppityperson]

24. I was wrong. Employers have to pay more if you work more than 35 hr/wk, but

employees do not take home more pay. Either employers put out the same amount of money and employees take home less, which few go for, or employers have to pay more and the employees take home the same amount. By doing away with this, the employers would end up putting out less than they do now, but the employees would take home the same as they do. It gives the employers a break, and rather than hiring someone else for the extra hours, they now could keep the same employee (leading to 1 person having a job rather than 2).

Another way of looking at it is that rather than the extra money going to pay taxes, the employers get to keep it, hoping that they will then spend it and stimulated local economies.

At least I think that is how it is. It is confusing but gives employers a break.

[Deja Q]

40. And the people in power seem to define our lives as

doing what they want us to do. Life and liberty are about US doing what WE want to do, in order to make a living; which helps us remain content, themselves content (and still wealthy), and so on. For most people, that doesn't equate into being shiftless indolent toe-rags!

[Joanne98]

5. They can work for 80 hours with half the pay!

I'm sure WE WILL all be better off!

[ohio2007]

11. They don't work 40 hrs as it is

let alone the unemployed youth who can't even get a job. Supposedly unemployment is 10% but the true unemployment #s may be revealed sooner than later.

[LSparkle]

2. I really worry about France losing its "joie de vivre" though

As long as he can change the rules not to PENALIZE those who prefer to just work 35 hours per week, that's fine. I fear that his policies may force sane/balanced Frenchmen who currently enjoy having extra time for family or personal life to "get with the program" and become just like the work-obsessed automatons on this side of the pond.

[Joanne98]

7. Why is everybody so happy about this?

The more we work. THE MORE WE ALL WORK!

[LSparkle]

12. Absolutely -- that's why I LOVE that France "bucked the trend" and

kept its work week at 35 hours. If they extend it, it'll just be more ammunition for Big Brother over here to push for 50 hours for us ...

[beyurslf]

3. I've always thought the mandatory 35 hour week was a little odd.

I can't imagine finishing all of my work every week in 35 hours no matter what.

[Warren Stupidity]

17. But 40 is ok?

Why not 60? Heck why have all this gummint intrustion at all?

[beyurslf]

19. Ours isn't mandatory. I can work more than 40 if I need to.

I really wish we could work 80 in 2 weeks rather than 40 in one week. I would gladly work a bunch of hours one week and take off the next without using vacation time.

[regnaD kciN]

22. Who works 40 hours a week anymore?

U.S. labor laws are written so that it's easy for an employer to bypass the 40-hour limit, requiring hours of mandatory unpaid overtime per week...and most do. (Unless, of course, they're only allowing employees to work less than 40 hours, so that they can be classified as "part-time" and exempt from benefits.)

For example, in my last programming job, I was told that the work-week was 40 hours, but if you weren't working 60-70 hours per week, you were "cheating the company."

I also know of a lot of companies that rely on temp agencies to fill many of their jobs -- although these temp workers have to spend 10-12 hours or more at the job each day, they are let known privately that, if they don't turn in a signed time card saying they worked only 40 hours a week, they will suddenly have their temp job come to an end, and be replaced by someone who is more compliant. (This generally also means that the agency will be unwilling to recommend them for any jobs in the future, so it becomes a not-so-subtle form of blacklisting.)

Just think...soon, France will be just like us! And, with Harper in charge in Canada, and England likely to soon fall under Tory rule, it will be only a matter of time before "strongman captialism" is The Way Of The World. :-(

[SayWhatYo]

25. Dell Computers does that....

Forced overtime.

[LeftishBrit]

36. It's not at all clear that the UK will soon fall under Tory rule!

The next election won't be till 2009, and it's not at all certain what will happen then; all indications are that it will be close. (And Cameron is not Bush - or Thatcher - in any case; not that I have any intention of voting for him!)

Italy and Spain have changed from Conservative to Socialist governments. New Zealand has a left-of-centre government, though Australia's is right-wing. And several Central American countries that once had EXTREMELY right-wing governments now have left-of-centre ones - e.g. Brazil, Chile.

So I'd say that, as always, most political leaders are bastards, and many are serious bastards; but the proportions haven't changed much. And I hope that you'll elect a Dem president in 2008!

[POAS]

6. This 35 hour week issue confuses me

maybe someone can clarify...

Are all employees of all private firms prohibited from working more than 35 hours per week or are there simply restictions on how and when employees can be forced to work more than 35 hours?

[Amused Musings]

13. I think

the original intention of the 35 hour week was to make it so one would have to hire more people to get the work done. I don't really know enough about it but I think it may be prohibited to receive pay after 35 hours a week. If not that, I imagine the tax system makes it not worth it to work anymore than 35 hours. I never quite understood the mechanisms in play.

[ProudDad]

14. Don't you believe it!!!

He's just another right-wing fascist fuck like the pResident in our White House!

[Eurobabe]

21. Oh but I started a thread yesterday about France lurching to the right

and only two people responded, rebutting the article from Der Spiegel. All the papers and TV mags in Europe are pretty much confirming that Sarkozy will stir up trouble in more than few ways.

[Warren Stupidity]

18. France has the highest per hour productivity.

We make up for our inefficiency with more hours. Go figure.

[whirlygigspin]

23. Sarko has one thing to say "You better WORK baby!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh1m_-Vou08

[CJCRANE]

34. Exactly - it's the productivity that's important

not the hours worked.

[whopis01]

39. Norway and Luxembourg would disagree with you...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP%29_per_capita_per_hour

They lead the G8, but not the world.

[Warren Stupidity]

43. You are correct, they only lead the major industrial democracies.

The point is that the stereotype we are handed of lazy inefficient freeloading french workers, hopelessly incompetent (a nation of clouseaus) is the complete opposite of the truth. France, and most of Europe, have simply not (or at least not yet) fallen for the neoliberal mythology.

[xchrom]

27. was it also sarkozy who was talking about devaluing the euro?

somebody was -- and i can't remember if it was sarkozy -- or the germans.

[Bassic]

28. Also, he wats to bring back morals to the country

Sound familiar?

[Cha]

30. Good ol' fascist morals as

opposed to Progressive morals?

I'll take progressive morals over all the hypocrital "I'm such a moral asshole..I just want to send Soldiers to die in a War I started cause we need more OIL" and bomb the Shite outta that country cause I can morals.

[Bassic]

32. The encouraging part is that the French people

are not easily bullied into accepting a policy that they don't agree with, so he'll have a much harder time than Bush had if he ever decides to take a similar course of action. He does, however, own a large portion of the media.

[hogwyld]

29. More trouble for the oppressed workers of the world

France was one of the last bulwarks agains the voracious appetite of the corporations. Their entire way of life will be changed for the worse, and the children will pay the price with their parents off at work instead of with the family. I am so distraught over this election and what it will destroy.

[Justitia]

31. So, a return to "Travail, Famille, Patrie"? chilling. -eom

[AngryAmish]

35. Theme song right here

[Deja Q]

37. With slave wages, they would HAVE to work more.

Most people know of don't mind working. But it is not wrong for people to ask to have new things to do, to be considered as people and not objects to be manipulated and discarded, and to be paid a fair wage. All these folks in power want to do is make people into slaves.

What's been said sounds nice -- so far. How long before it's perverted into something far less nice? How long before what sounds like a dream turns into the nightmare, of which America is becoming?

Tell me where I'm wrong. I'll listen.

[bikebloke]

38. But not his rich friends

He wants France back to work, but you can bet it won't apply to his wealthy mates and corporate patrons. They're the only ones who'll reap the benefits, while everyone else slides backwards. You'd think the Scare-kozy voters would have looked over at the amerikan example and what a failure it is for most people.

[conspirator]

41. www.whywork.org ? nt

[kskiska]

42. Goodbye to la belle France? (good article from The Guardian)

The French seem to have the perfect lifestyle: long lunches, short hours, great food and plenty of ooh-la-la. But their new president is determined to make them work harder, faster, more efficiently - just like the British and Americans. Merde alors, says Stuart Jeffries

It was perhaps the second glass of wine that did it. That, or the dessert of millefeuille aux poires. Or it could have been the blanquette, the bourguignon, the pot-au-feu or whatever Le Firmament in the Rue 4 Septembre in Paris's second arrondissement was offering as the day's special. Whatever. After lunch, I would stroll back to my office, shadowing my eyes from the 3.30pm sun, nod off at my desk over the lunchtime edition of Le Monde, to be awoken by my own snoring. Only then, with the proper morosité of a grumpy Frenchman, would I contemplate returning to work. Unless Nicolas from the economics agency across the courtyard came round and asked if I wanted to have a quick beer, which I often did. I had gone native: I didn't live to work, but worked to live. And live well.

France, when I worked there at the turn of the millennium, seemed a marvellous place. The Protestant work ethic had been refused a work permit and, if one occasionally had a sense that this decadence had something of the last days of the Roman Empire about it, no matter: this was the way to live. Certainly, if you were middle class and in a secure job, the country had it all. It remains substantially the same. There is still the 35-hour week, for a start, even if new president Nicolas Sarkozy has derided it as a "general catastrophe for the French economy".

There is something called making "le pont", which means that if a national holiday falls in the middle of the week, French workers will take off enough days before or after it to extend it all the way to the nearest weekend. Not since Edward Heath's three-day week have the British managed to work so little. And there is none of this American rubbish of two weeks' leave a year in France either: Paris, in particular, is massively depopulated from Bastille Day (July 14) until September as the French head off for at least two months of well-earned eating, drinking, romancing and dozing.

more…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,,2075293,00.html