This Sunday, in an interview with Les Echos, the former Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, clarified his ideas in terms of reducing public spending. The one who was Minister of Public Accounts from 2017 to 2020 brought out an old idea: increase the working hours of the French.
“We can also definitively end the 35 hours in the private sector and return to working hours for dialogue in the company in exchange for profit-sharing and participation and move to 36 or 37 hours in the public sector, of course paid accordingly”» defended the northern deputy of the Ensemble pour la République (EPR).
How would this proposal allow the State to save money ? We help you see things more clearly.
What is the real working time of the French today?
In principle, since the 35-hour reform which made this working time compulsory for all companies from January 1, 2022, the French work… 35 hours per week. It is for the legal duration weekly work.
In reality, according to INSEE, the usual weekly duration of work for all employees in France exceeds the 37 hours in 2022.
Not all jobs are at the same hourly level. For full-time employees in the private sector, it is almost 39 hours. The frames are more than 41 hourstraders and craftsmen more than 43 hours and farmers exceed the 52 hours.
Do the French work less than others?
In 2023, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), The French worked 1,500 hours. We are far from being 1,799 hours of Americans or the 2,207 hours of the Mexicans, but we work more than the Germans (1,343 hours) or the Danes (1,380 hours).
Please note: these are averages distorted by the number of public holidays, the percentage of people at home and part-time workers.
How would increasing working hours bring money to the state?
The answer to this question is eminently political. The arguments are based on different visions of society.
Thus, for the Montaigne Institute, a liberal think tank, increase working time agents du service public sans salary remuneration in total would allow several budgetary gains:
- we would need fewer staff in the civil service
- this would reduce overtime, the cost of which, according to the Institute, represented 1.4 billion euros in 2012 for state civil servants alone.
- this would reduce the number of days of leave saved (the cumulative stock of which would correspond to 1.5 billion euros)
A parliamentary commission chaired by the Horizons deputy Thierry Benoît, and whose rapporteur was the socialist Barbara Romagnan, developed another vision. In its report on “the societal, economic and financial impact of the gradual reduction of working hours”, the commission instead recommends a further reduction working time.
But she considers that the basis of the weekly calculation of working time is generally obsolete and considers that it must be taken into account over several years. For parliamentarians, other forms of RTT could accompany a reduction in working time: days of leave thus saved could then allow employees to take longer leave for personal reasons (birth of children, sabbatical periods, elderly parents to take care of), or be used for professional purposes (end-of-career relief, training leave, professional management transitions).
The question of the 4-day week is increasingly being asked by companies and their employees. In Europe, experiments are multiplying. In France, several trade union organizations are defending this development.
According to the CGT for example, it is not a question of save money in the short term but rather to consider the effects of work as a whole: on the health of the French (prospects of savings in this area), on employment (more positions to be filled), on leisure (more time and therefore expenses).
