7 hours in 2002 the effective duration is to 39

To the Government as the UMP, we swear that the record of 35 hours is not closed. The reflection of the UMP "wield effectively project" presidential 2012, said Budget Minister François Baroin, the Assembly while the President of the UMP in the Palais-Bourbon group, Christian Jacob, received day liberal Hervé Novelli and Gérard Longuet, responsible for proposing avenues of reform. It came them the idea, they should find it difficult to meet the CGT. Its leader, Bernard Thibault, declined the invitation by Jean-François Copé speaking social relying on particular "grandiose statements on the 35 hours" of the Secretary General of the UMP, "that raise many emotions among the employees" (read here).

In any case, it is that the subject remains sensitive for a majority of the latter. Ifop poll published Sunday by "West-France" shows that 57 of the employees of the private sector and 61 of the public want not a repeal of the Aubry law. However, this is not a tidal wave. But it is true that 35 hours have never been an impassable limit. Reduction of working time has been most often exchanged an annualization of its management, allowing employers to vary the duration of the work by the imperatives of production. In addition, companies who wish to can now pay hours of reduction of working time rather than give them vacation. Finally, the additional hours were largely facilitated. Already, the Aubry law provided that enterprises of less than 20 employees could stay in 39 hours of transient. In fact, in recent years saw skip all the locks of the overtime. Their remuneration, already increased in the private sector was also increased by Act Tepa of 2007. The exemption of income tax and social security contributions device costs around EUR 4 billion to 36.8 million additional hours in 2009. Symbol of "work more to earn more" Nicolas Sarkozy, he escapes but critics of the majority, which focus on relief of loads disjointed for the duration of the work, which are five times more expensive.

Theory... and effective reality

In fact, the reality of the weekly actual duration of full-time employees work strongly differs from the legal term. At the Elysee Palace, it was noted that after be lowered to 37.7 hours in 2002, the effective duration is to 39.4 hours in 2009, against 39.7 hours in 1997, according to Eurostat. The "social portrait" INSEE estimates, him, the same length to 41 hours from the statements made by the employees of the survey of employment, with differences in the categories (see above). According to him, the actual duration "appears to be stabilizing or even slightly increasing" since 2003. But this average covers large disparities, the 35-hour being generally more applied in large public organizations or private in the SME and VSE (see below). Remains a final component on which much remains to be done: the degradation of working conditions, which could accompany the reduction in its duration. "The Sumer of the Ministry of Labour investigation shows that this is not a general phenomenon, but that it affects rather women workers or employees," said economist Philippe Askenazy, who saw the result of "the 35-hour were not designed to improve the conditions of work but as a tool for employment policy.