Daimler Aims to Skirt France’s 35-Hour Work Week Rule

Daimler AG is attempting to get around France's 15-year old law that limits the normal work week to 35 hours, Bloomberg News reports.

Daimler is bargaining with workers at its Smart minicar plant in Hambach to expand their work hours to 39 by 2018 in exchange for an additional €6 of pay for each additional hour. Bloomberg notes that workers at several other companies have agreed to similar schemes, often to prevent their factory from closing.

The French law was passed in 2000 as a way to increase employment by encouraging companies to share jobs with more workers. Economists aren't clear whether the idea has worked, according to Bloomberg. It notes that skeptics claim the rule, along with the rest of France's complex labor code, has made the country less competitive.

Oddly, French fulltime workers averaged 40.5 hours per week last year, only one hour less than Europe overall, according to the EU s Eurostat data agency. Bloomberg notes that every French government since 2000 has softened the original law without revoking it.