More time spent at work – an EU-wide trend?

Date: 02/09/04

GERMAN industry's high-profile agreements to increase working hours are having a knock-on effect on Germany's neighbours. While the European economy lags behind the US and Asia, will Germany's example be followed elsewhere?

In July, German toolmaker Bosch managed to persuade French workers at a plant near Lyon to work an extra hour every week after threatening to relocate a production line to the Czech Republic. And last week poultry producer Doux announced its workers would work two extra hours a week for no extra money

Such moves have been introduced just as the centre-right French government begins to meet trade unions to debate the controversial 35-hour-week law. The law, introduced in phases by the socialist government from 1999, has failed to have the intended effect on employment figures. France still has one of the lowest employment rates in Europe with just over 60% of the active population in work. The OECD estimates the 35-hour week costs the government between €8-10 billion per year

France's Finance Minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, has consistently criticized the law but President Jacques Chirac insists the principle of the 35-hour week will not be changed. French unions have so far rejected any moves to overhaul the system

In the Netherlands and Belgium, things are also hotting up. Dutch Economic Affairs Minister Laurens Jan Brinkhorst called in July for a "normal working week of 40 hours", but a recent decision by furniture maker Smead Europe to extend the working week to 40 hours was overturned in a Dutch labour court. Since then, Belgian trade unions have rejected plans by steel company Marichal Ketin, a subsidiary of German group Gontermann Peiper to make employees work a 40-hour week in order to keep the loss-making division from going under

Martin Werding of the IFO Institute admits an overall increase in working time will not solve Europe's competition issues. "The system will only work [in Germany] if no one else goes in the same direction," he says.

ETUC researcher Ronald Janssen explains the problem. "The reasoning [behind increasing working hours] may work in a limited way, say to bring down the cost of German cars. But if all other EU countries use the same recipe and increase working hours by 20%, demand will have to increase by 20% just to maintain employment levels," he says

In several EU Member States there have been initiatives to increase working hours.