Hospitality Workers Get Longer Hours In France

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The New York Sun

PARIS — French restaurateurs, hoteliers, and waiters reacted furiously yesterday after the state imposed a 35-hour working week on the hospitality sector.

The decision by the council of state could mean that businesses have to reduce opening hours if they cannot afford to employ extra staff.

It is the latest blow to hit cafe and restaurant owners, who are bracing themselves for a drop in trade when a total public smoking ban comes into force in February. They are also disillusioned bybroken promises of a reduction in VAT.

The ruling is an embarrassment to the right-wing government, which has pledged to phase out the reduced working hours it regards as a socialist-era millstone around the economy’s neck. The right’s chief presidential hopeful, Nicolas Sarkozy, called for the issue to be “re-examined without delay.”

Working hours were cut by the state from 43 hours to 39 in 2004, but employers were spared a further reduction in exchange for giving employees an extra week’s holiday. However, following a complaint by the CFDT union, the conseil d’etat ruled to end the exemption.

At a chic cafe in Paris, its owner Jean-Pierre Berthe shrugged despairingly from behind the zinc counter yesterday. “Why do they fall over themselves to stop people working in this country?” he said.


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