The measure is likely to cause a lot of talk. This Saturday, the Senate voted on Saturday to increase the annual working hours of employees by 12 additional hours. And this despite the anger of the left and the opposition of the government.
An amendment from centrist senator Olivier Henno (UDI), voted for by the majority alliance between the right and the center in the upper house, was adopted by 199 votes to 135 as part of the examination of the Social Security budget.
It risks not being able to prosper further in the debates on this text, because the vast majority of parliamentarians already consider any agreement between the National Assembly and the Senate on the Social Security budget for 2026 impossible.
“One hour per month, 15 minutes per week”
But it relaunches a very sensitive debate on working time, in a period of Social Security deficit. “We won’t be able to get out of this if we don’t create more wealth. To produce more wealth, we must invest more, but above all increase working hours,” explained Olivier Henno. “Twelve hours of paid work per year is one hour per month, 15 minutes per week,” he added, estimating an annual return of more than 10 billion euros.
In detail, without going back to the legal 35 hours per week, the amendment would increase the annual duration from 1,607 hours to 1,619 hours worked, leaving it to the social partners to organize themselves to put it in place.
The left protested against this proposal, deemed “arbitrary and unfair”. “How can you talk about imperceptible efforts when it comes to adding working time to fellow citizens who carry out difficult jobs? », Despaired the socialist Simon Uzenat to the attention of the right, denouncing “an absolute provocation”.
The government postpones the measure until later
“It’s heavy,” reacted Labor Minister Jean-Pierre Farandou. If he said he was “in solidarity” with the objectives of the measure, he considered it inappropriate to adopt it within the framework of this budget, postponing this “area of debate” to later, in particular “within the framework of the Work and Pensions social conference” which will open on December 5.
This is not the first time that the Senate has made proposals of this type. Last year, he voted to add an additional day of solidarity (worked for free) to finance autonomy. Former Prime Minister François Bayrou also invested in this area with his much criticized proposal to eliminate two public holidays. Two proposals that did not prosper.