French 35-hour week revoked

Paris: France's parliament passed a law on Wednesday that will allow companies to bypass compulsory 35-hour working week limits, effectively burying one of the flagship reforms of the former Socialist government.

President Nicolas Sarkozy has repeatedly slammed the 35-hour week as one of the biggest factors hampering France's economic competitiveness and he has chipped away at it since coming to power in 2007.

However, he hasn't scrapped it altogether considering its popularity among French workers and the boost to consumer purchasing power of overtime work, which is not subject to income tax after an earlier reform last year.

The law, which also includes measures aimed at ensuring that unions are more representative, will permit firms to set individual deals with unions over working hours and overtime.

The 35-hour working week, introduced by former Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin a decade ago, has been very popular with French workers, with 37 days of paid leave a year, compared with 27 in Germany.

Supporters say it has allowed a better balance between work and home life and deny it has held back productivity. But for the centre-right government, the rules have become a symbol of the need to reform the French economy.

Executive staff, whose pay is calculated daily rather than hourly, are likely to be particularly affected and face losing some or all of the compensation days they currently gain for working beyond weekly work limits.

The law allows individual companies or sectors to set a maximum number of days an employee has to work in a year and agree the number of overtime hours, as well as how much time an employee can take off in compensation.