New French Law Allows Employers to Ignore 35-Hour Workweek

The French Parliament adopted a new economic law on July 23 that effectively ends the 35-hour workweek. The law gives businesses the right to negotiate directly with employees to decide their working hours, without regard to the 35-hour workweek limitation. The law, opposed by the trade unions and socialists, was a victory for French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has been trying to slash worker benefits in order to make the country's businesses more competitive in the global market.

The 35-hour workweek was approved by previous socialist governments as a means for cutting unemployment. Between 1998 and 2002, it created 350,000 jobs, but at the cost of billions of euros in government assistance to companies. Changes in the law state that job seekers will have their unemployment benefits stopped if they turn down a certain number of "reasonable" job offers. The law also contains rules to restrict strikes. It requires schools to look after children on school premises when teachers go on strike.

Public opinion polls show that the French still regard the 35-hour workweek as a progressive measure that they would like to preserve. Economic Minister Christine Lagarde said that the cost-cutting provisions of the bill would help increase the purchasing power of households by a possible 1,000 euros a year, starting in 2009." (That's about $1,500).

Wal-Mart Signs 8% Pay Deals with Chinese Unionized Workers

Wal-Mart, the U.S. retail giant, known for fending off organized labor in its home market, has completed collective bargaining agreements with unions in two Chinese cities. The agreements, reached with government-approved unions in Shenyang and Quanzhou, came less than two years after the official All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) launched a high-profile campaign to organize workers and mark a new chapter in the development of China's labor movement.

The agreement in Shenyang locked in an 8 percent pay raise, both this year and next, for the company's Chinese employees. a company spokesman and union officials said. By comparison, the average hourly wage in Wal-Mart's U.S. stores, which are not unionized, has risen 12 percent since January 2005 from $9.68 to $10,86. A Wal-Mart spokesman said: "By law, collective bargaining is required, and we respect the law wherever we operate."

More than 46,500 people work at 105 Wal-Mart stores across China. All have been unionized over the past two years. Activists view endorsement of collective bargaining as a step forward in the development of the Chinese labor movement. The government still frowns on strikes, and the establishment of unions independent of the ACFTU remains illegal.

Dockers Protest after Greek Ship Explosion Kills Eight Workers

At least eight people were killed by a gas explosion aboard a tanker undergoing repairs in a dockyard near Athens, sparking violent demonstrations by dockworkers over safety standards. Workers clashed with riot police outside Greece's Merchant Marine Ministry in a protest to what they say are regular violations of safety procedures at the state-run Perama dockyards, west of Athens.

A spokesman for the public sector workers said on July 25, the day after the accident, that lack of safety measures and indifference by ship-owners had turned dockyards into a "permanent death-trap for workers." In July 2007, two workers were killed in a similar incident at Perama.

Greece has the world's largest merchant marine fleet. Greek-run companies control nearly a fifth of the world's shipping fleet. "Shipping rates are up and ship owners are always exerting pressure for repairs to be carried out as quickly as possible," said a metalworkers' union representative.

In New Zealand, One in Three Work over 50 Hours a Week

More than 150 years after a carpenter in Petone famously insisted on working an eight-hour day, one in three full-time workers in New Zealand are clocking up more than 50 hours a week, according to the 2006 Census data. Three-quarters of those working more than 50 hours are men and they are both with high qualifications and no qualifications at all.

"This research provides a timely reminder of the importance of employers and employees working together to ensure that they have safe working conditions and access to flexible working arrangements that help them balance work with other things that are important to them," said a government official. Union leaders say that New Zealand has a culture of working long hours, and a 40-hour workweek doesn't square with reality.

There is no particular ethnic makeup of the group working long hours, though Europeans are more likely to work long hours. Those classified in the long workweek category earned, on average, more than $70,000 a year.

Ireland's Passport Workers Conduct Three-Day Strike to Save Jobs

Strong support for a three-day strike of the staff of Identity and Passport Service (IPS) has caused disruption in the issuing of passports and the cancellation of appointments and interviews. The work stoppage was called by the union in response to mounting anger among workers over office closures, "draconian" working conditions and wage offers below the inflation rate.

The workers are upset over restructuring plans that could see the U.K.'s seven passport offices reduced to three. The closing of the Glasgow passport office could see the loss of 100 jobs. Management's pay offer, worth only 2.5 percent, comes at the same time as nearly £50 million has been spent on consultants. The longest-serving workers are not included in the pay offer-for the fifth year in a row. Starting salaries in the IPS are as low as £13,109 ( $26,062).s year.

Mark Serwatka, PCS general secretary, said: "Strike action is not a step our members take lightly and the inevitable disruption caused could have been avoided if management and the government had sought to address the concerns of staff."

Ministers of Côte D'Ivoire Cut Own Wages to End Public Sector Strike

A week of strikes and protests in the West African nation of Côte D'Ivoire's (Ivory Coast) economic capital, Abidijan, ended on July 20, following a government announcement that it would continue to subsidize fuel and that government ministers would slash their own salaries by 50 percent to help cover the cost. The move marks a reversal of a July 6 government policy scrapping fuel subsidies.

The government, which has been subsidizing fuel prices for the past three years, removed the subsidies on July 6 because it could no longer fund them, As a result, the price of fuel rose by 29 percent in 24 hours, and the price of diesel by 44 percent.

Strike leaders said the government's measures were likely to lead only to s lull in the strike, not to its conclusion. "We have called off the operation of last week, but we're waiting for other measures to be taken to alleviate the suffering of the population," said Gode Doukoua, president of the Côte D'Ivoire Consumers' Association.

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