Sarkozy keeps 35-hour working week

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(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-28 07:49

France will keep its 35-hour working week in order to enable employees to add tax-deductible overtime to their salaries and boost growth, President Nicolas Sarkozy said yesterday.

Sarkozy also rejected the idea of budget austerity, saying his strategy for balancing France's budget by 2012 - as promised to EU partners - was for the nation to generate more wealth through rising employment and increased overtime.

He has called the 35-hour week, brought in by a Socialist government 10 years ago, an "economic catastrophe", but appears reluctant to scrap it for fear of angering unions and voters.

"I don't believe in austerity ... What did austerity measures bring (in the past)? Higher unemployment, higher deficit and less growth," Sarkozy said during an interview on RTL radio.

"Austerity consists in squeezing spending without worrying about increasing revenues. What I want to do is control spending so that every euro cent spent is well spent, but at the same time foster growth so that revenues increase.

"We will have higher returns because people will be working more."

"There will always be a fixed working week and it will be 35 hours," said Sarkozy, whose mantra since year's election has been "work more to earn more".

Tax-deductible overtime beyond the 35-hour legal working limit is one of his key measures to increase purchasing power.

Many allies think he should be bolder, and looking to force the issue the head of the ruling UMP party said last week the law should be dismantled altogether.

Sarkozy has been facing protests over several of his reform proposals, and approval ratings for his government's economic policies hit their lowest levels in two years this month, according to a poll published on Monday.

Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets last week to protest against his plan to require employees to work for 41 years instead of 40 to qualify for a full state pension.

In his radio interview, Sarkozy said he would stick to the plan because the current system was unsustainable, but he added that he would not follow advice from employers' organization MEDEF to raise the pensionable age to 63 from 60.

"I will not do it ... I didn't talk about it during my (electoral) campaign. I made no such commitment to the French people, therefore I have no mandate to do it," he said.

He also said there would be no negotiation on his plan to cut public spending by not replacing one out of every two civil servants who retire.

Teachers and students have staged countless rallies against the plan, which will lead to 11,200 job cuts in the education system in the coming academic year, but the protest appears to have lost momentum in recent days.

Agencies

(China Daily 05/28/2008 page12)