French Prime Minister Attal announced that ministries would be asked to launch experiments with a four-day work week, however, he emphasized that it was a matter of condensing five working days into four in exchange for a three-day week. As the daily working hours will be lengthened, some people are skeptical about the effect.
In his overall policy speech in the National Assembly on Tuesday, Atal asked the ministries to introduce a four-day work week on a trial basis in the central and local administrative offices, emphasizing that “it is not a four-day week, but putting the week in four days.”
In other words, the prime minister’s proposal is for employees to extend their working hours by four days in exchange for three days of vacation while keeping the weekly working hours the same, and wants the country to “become a model” in the evolution of labor conditions.
The National Assembly on Wednesday also announced the launch of a “four-day week mission”, in which two deputies will invite business owners, trade unionists, labor and sociology experts to hold public hearings over the next five to 10 months to study the advantages and disadvantages of a four-day week and the possibility of changing labor patterns.
The idea comes from an experiment promoted by Attal last year when he became Minister of Public Accounts. from March 2023, employees of the Joint Agency for the Collection of Social Security and Family Allowances (Urssaf) in the Picardie region of northern France were given the option of voluntarily participating in the 4-day work week experiment.
However the trial resulted in not only a low number of participants, but also a poor return. According to a report in Le Figaro at the time, Rousseau, the deputy director of the organization, said that only three employees had participated in the full one-month experiment, describing it as a “fiasco”.
The reason for this was probably the fact that 36 hours of work had to be done in only four days, which resulted in a long working day. As a result, not everyone likes the tighter pace and hours, especially employees who have to work around children’s schedules, have heavy workloads, and have longer commutes.
However, according to the survey, the French public seems to be more in favor of a 4-day work week than the results of the trial. According to a May 2023 poll conducted by the Huffington Post, 75% of respondents were in favor of a 4-day week, provided salaries don’t shrink.
