Could the planets be aligning? Nouvelle Donne MEP Pierre Larrouturou – member of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats group – is carefully observing the current interest in the four-day week. He has long been an ardent defender of it.
Voices in favor of such a distribution of working time are becoming more numerous, on the left and right of the political spectrum, and experiments are increasing in France and abroad. ” Debate (…) comes back in force »he notes, emphasizing at the same time the high rate of support within the population: “84% of French people would like to move to four days”according to a survey carried out by the company GetApp in 2023.
It is in this context, and while he is involved in the campaign for the European elections, that Mr. Larrouturou proposes a manifesto on the subject, 32 p.m.! A four-day week is possible (Threshold). The opportunity to highlight the advantages of the system, but also to specify how it should, in his opinion, be deployed. Because, in fact, several four-day weeks are possible.
Should we set up a week ” in “ four days, as Gabriel Attal favors? In fact, the Prime Minister announced an experiment in this direction in the ministries: the number of weekly working hours will remain constant and will be spread over four days. A false good idea in the eyes of Mr. Larrouturou, who campaigns on the contrary for the reduction in days worked to be accompanied by a reduction in the number of hours to be worked.
Hirings and exemptions
But he knows it: the transition to 32 hours, which he calls for, can “to scare” – or cause its defenders to be sued for naivety. Throughout the pages, he therefore strives to demonstrate the seriousness of the approach. To do this, he highlights his historical supporters, first and foremost Michel Rocard (1930-2016), who worked alongside him for such a reduction in working hours, “seeing it as the best way to reconcile economic efficiency and social well-being”. He further believes that “more than five hundred companies in France” have taken the plunge and “ [leurs] customers saw no difference in price or quality of products ».
How to finance such a reduction in working hours? Mr. Larrouturou takes as a model the system initiated by the Robien law of 1996 – and which was active until the transition to 35 hours at the beginning of the 21st century.e century. Its principle was simple: if the transition to the four-day week was accompanied by a certain level of hiring, it gave the right to an exemption from unemployment contributions.
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