Reducing working hours is one of organised labour's oldest and most fundamental demands. Over the past century, working time has steadily come down in Europe, if not in workaholic America, as unions have pushed governments into cutting the standard work week. Yet the pendulum now seems to be swinging back, in response not only to globalisation but also to a changing European mood. Confirmation of this has come in a Financial Times/Harris poll of nearly 10,000 people in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Overall, 47 per cent of these west Europeans declared themselves against government action to restrict working hours, leaving 40 per cent still in favour of such controls.
This overall result masks some important national differences. The most striking is not that 52 per cent of Britons reject curbs on working time (even though these are relatively insignificant in the UK), but that the same proportion of French, and an even higher ratio (65 per cent) of Germans, feel the same way in spite of union and some official support for work limits. In Italy, a slim plurality now opposes working time limits. The survey's outlier is Spain, where 72 per cent of the population back work time limits. But this may be because Spaniards feel they toil enough with the extra psychological burden of returning to work after a siesta.
See full Article (paid subscription required).
Posts
