What if you had all your Fridays free? Wednesday evening, Gabriel Attal spoke at length on the theme of work at 20 hours from TF1. Amid announcements on a reform of unemployment insurance and his desire to “de-emcardify” France, the Prime Minister also opened a door to rethink working time. He says he is open to establishing “the four-day week”, without the length of working time being reduced.
MEP Pierre Larrouturou, author of the forthcoming book 32 hours! A 4-day week is possiblewho defended in the columns of 20 minutes a reduction in working hours at the time of pension reform, returns to this announcement.
Pierre Larrouturou, you have been defending the idea of a four-day week for a long time. What do you think of Gabriel Attal’s idea?
Pierre Larrouturou : We have the impression that he feels that there is a huge movement in society, that people want to live better, but he does not follow the reasoning through. Last week, an investigation of Politis showed that 77% of workers want a four-day week, but in thirty-two hours. It’s massive. Young and old, rural and urban, everyone wants that. When he made his general policy speech to the Assembly in January, he spoke of the aspiration to live differently. He recognizes that it is not a “right to be lazy”. Until then, well done. He is not totally disconnected from reality. But afterwards, it feels like his brain is going into a tailspin.
The Urssaf of Picardy attempted an experiment with a week in four days, at thirty-six hours per week. Out of 200 employees, only three have switched to this system, only childless women. So it even goes against the “demographic rearmament” advocated by Emmanuel Macron, because working longer days does not help take care of children. The debate will gain further momentum. I was invited three weeks ago to the Assembly committee on the four-day week at thirty-two hours, in front of majority deputies to explain to them how it was possible to put it in place, with a new Robien law.
There are already experiments, in France and elsewhere, with a four-day, thirty-two-hour week. What do they say?
PL: There are French companies with three years of experience like LDLC, and we see that it works very well. Their boss wanted to move to four days without loss of pay, and he says it doesn’t make sense to work longer days. Recruitment is also made easier, it attracts a lot of CVs. In the UK, they have done a big experiment on a national scale, with dozens of companies of different sizes and different areas: 92% of companies want to stay with this system.
“ The four-day week is not about working longer days and ending up burned out. » »
Even at the Davos forum last February, which does not really bring together the far left, the four-day week was presented in a very favorable manner. The Dutch Minister of Labor, who comes from the conservative right, said that the average working time is twenty-nine hours, but almost all women are three days and men five days. She wanted to rebalance by giving everyone four days off to re-discuss domestic tasks. For comparison, in France, we average 38.5 hours of weekly work, according to INSEE.
How does France work with a four-day week?
PL: We have to distinguish whether we do it full time or whether we spend thirty-two hours! The four-day week is not about working longer days and ending up burned out. Millions of people cannot imagine going another hour, because they are exhausted, because they have a long journey. Women also give feedback on this subject, they often start another day of work at home with the children. So that’s not possible.
On the other hand, when people are at work with a thirty-two hour week, they are really at work. They are more productive, happier. Absenteeism is falling, the burn-out rate is plummeting. Another element is that it gives time to train. We take advantage of it to be cool, play sports, see the people we love… But we can also train to progress in our professional life, and then it becomes a competitive advantage for our country. Finally, it is estimated that we could create 1.6 million jobs with a thirty-two hour week, which is good for Social Security and for retirement funds.
Precisely, Gabriel Attal’s idea is coupled with an offensive against the unemployed…
PL: There is a false good idea, the four-day, thirty-six-hour week. A bill is planned by September on well-being at work and full employment; it would be very strange not to have amendments to move to thirty-two hours. Then, what he wants to do against the unemployed is absolutely scandalous. It takes up what was done in Germany in 2004: “we cut off the unemployed’s food supplies to force them to take odd jobs”.
+ information on professional life
Today, there are six million jobs working ten hours a week paying 538 euros in Germany. It’s a great way to share the work! But on a human level it’s scandalous and it blows up in their faces. Germany is in recession, this has caused a doubling of poverty among retirees and there is a consumption problem. Because when you earn 538 euros per month, you don’t buy a Mercedes, but you eat the cheapest pasta all month long. And politically, these are people who are turning to the extreme right or who are no longer going to vote. Cutting off supplies to the unemployed is a shame and economically stupid.