But still the crisis has changed the gives

Indifference. It is the attitude that seem to adopt most of large business of the law of August 20, 2008 for renovation of social democracy and reform working time. This text should, inter alia, lead to the "unravelling" of 35 des 35. It allows companies to set through a collective agreement their quota of overtime, to decide of the counterparties in rest for employees and to establish the organizational modalities of the work of managers and self-employed workers subject to an annual schedule package (in the theoretical limit of 235 days a year). Now, employers have wide latitude to manage time and rhythms of work of their teams.

And yet... the major groups do not rushed to renegotiate the agreements signed in the wake of the Aubry laws, just ten years ago. With the arrival of the crisis, some SMEs, for flexibility, particularly in industry, wanted to renegotiate their agreements, to prevent, as it may, partial unemployment periods by adapting the rhythms of work to their order books. But, as that the crisis settles, change the duration of the work is no longer the panacea for businesses in turmoil. To a historic decline in sales and Legion stocks, automakers are not head to the lengthening of working time. For its part, the RATP escaped financial bourrasque. Yet, it has set up a device to "monetize" the days of RTT placed by employees on their savings time account as permitted by law of February 8, 2008 but has not renegotiated its agreement.

Because the storm, and especially in large groups, "the 35-hour were of unprecedented complexity to implement." But their cost is now integrated in the "business model" of companies that have no desire to reopen Pandora's box. The monster was digested. "Employers have desire to move on," said Stephanie Stein, specialist counsel for social law at the law firm Eversheds. To address the issue of working time Announces, it heated discussions "with, for example, a count of actual working time and rest time, akin to a policing of the employees." "Nobody want to relaunch as confrontational debate".

Climate of ideological war

According to Josette Théophile, HRD to the RATP, the expectations of employees in the monetization of the days of RTT "face a very hostile discourse of the social partners." Indeed, the climate of ideological war in which bathed the presidential campaign and parliamentary debates which preceded the adoption of the three laws to remove the 35-hour were not simplified dialogue within companies. Jean-Christophe Benetti, HRD to the armaments Nexter group, is even convinced that the renegotiation of the agreement of working time would have been much simpler if it had not become a national political issue (see below).

But still, the crisis has changed the gives. A few months ago, the announcement of the opening of a renegotiation of the agreement on working time caused the resentment of the social partners and employees. Last September, the Roularta press group eventually suspend its decision to denounce his 35-hour agreement after a 24-hour strike. A few days later, the opening of a "reflection on the modulation", and the lengthening of working time sparked a wind of Sling Eurocopter. The 14,000 employees of the EADS subsidiary were not frankly packed the idea to waive the four-day week introduced (for the non-management) in 1998. Result: the project remained in cartons. A failure to renegotiate its agreement to reduce and annualization of working time, management plans to ask the non working hours supplémentaires(majoréesde25,commeleprévoitlaloiTEPA) for 10 of 39 non-worked Friday each year. The essential, namely, the 35-hour agreement, being preserved.

The economic emergency can now make more supportive social partners: April 28, 2008, the central Committee of Peugeot motorcycles is pronounced for the renegotiation of the 35 hours in exchange for maintenance of 1,100 jobs on the sites of Mandeure (Doubs) and Dannemarie (Haut-Rhin). Similarly, when the manufacturer of boilers Baxi France decided to avoid the filing of balance, to convey his activity of Foundry (155 employees in Picardy) Focast group, in January 2008, the buyer has conditioned the transaction to the relitigation of the TCTS agreement signed in 2002. The social partners have thus agreed to spend 35 hours to 37 hours by week (1.607 hours per year). But they felt betrayed when, six months later, their employer announced a plan of 11 job losses.

Pragmatic employees

And since the crisis, the question of the lengthening of the duration of the work is more truly taboo for employees. Managers have become also pragmatic businesses: working time, their aspirations vary according to conditions. The survey in June 2008 by Cegos 597 employees thus reveals that the latter are attached to the 35 hours: 82 of them feel satisfied with this organization. But the crisis has left traces. In purchasing power, 67 of the interviewees, degraded, more than half (54) employees would return to the 39 hours for financial compensation.

Whereas their participation and their engagement should not be released, they see the increase in working time their only track of pay progression. The experience of the watchmaker Breitling, who had been one of the first companies to adopt the 35 hours, late 1990s, gives them reason. In early September, Breitling has proposed its 44 employees to 41 hours a week. Only one refused. All other signed the endorsement in their employment contract formalising this new organization. And for good reason: it is accompanied by a 26 pay increase.

This phenomenon is growing as the crisis moved into people's minds: the survey conducted in November by the Office of recruitment Robert Walters 500 managers reveals that more than half (53.2) of them would be willing to renounce their RTT for a 15 wage increase. "We have launched this investigation after realized us that the candidates expressed more and more often their expectations for discussions of recruitment purchasing power, says Antoine Morgaut, Director General Europe of Robert Walters. Aware that bonuses and premiums of objectives could go to the hatch, they seek to secure their remuneration.

Nothing definitive

In addition, Anne Marion-Bouchacourt, Director of human resources of Société Générale, is convinced that employees have very different desires for the time of work: "more than 35 years have envy free time, while less than 35 years are ready to work more to earn more."

Arbitration time free-pay is revealing the anxieties of frameworks for the environment and climate. "It is obvious since the French have understood that the crisis might be deep, said Antoine Morgaut.". But there is nothing final: in Great Britain and Ireland, where the crisis began earlier, requests for time partial four days a week are more frequent. Because when life becomes too hard, the workers recovering to focus on their quality of life.