Incorporation of Directives into French Law: increasing working time for lorry drivers!

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The government has just passed the law incorporating the European directives on working time in the transport industry into French law. Most of the unions that had filed an appeal are planning a response and are seriously concerned.

On 7 April 2005, the National Assembly passed the Bill on working time in the transport industry. Its single article enables Parliament to validate the government decree of 12 November 2004 on working time in the transport industry which incorporated various European directives (88/2003 and 15/2002) into national law.

As of April 2005, the new provisions on working time in the transport industry set:

• The absolute limit of daily working time at 10 hours (compared to the previous limit of 8 hours in France);

• Night working time set as running from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. (as opposed to the previous slot of 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.);

• The right to a break if working time exceeds 6 hours per day;

• A daily break of 11 consecutive hours.

These measures apply to all transport-sector activities, whether those of passenger or freight transport, with methods for calculating time off in lieu lowering it to 10 days per year (from 32).

For long distance lorry drivers, maximum weekly working time has been set at 56 hours, which can, by collective agreement, be counted as an average over a 3-month period.

For other mobile staff, weekly working time is set at a maximum of 52 hours (compared to the previous 48 hours for these jobs).

For the security company drivers, remaining on a 48-hour week, measures for the averaging out of overtime over a given period and a limit of days off in lieu will apply.

The inland waterways transport workers, who just signed a collective agreement in 2004, are the only ones excluded from all these new provisions.

As soon as the governing coalition passed the Bill ratifying the decree on working time in the transport industry into law, employers’ associations, the French Federation of Transport and Logistics Companies (Fédération des entreprises de transport et de logistique de France, TLF) and the National Federation of Road Hauliers (Fédération nationale des transporteurs routiers, FNTR) warmly welcomed it. They pointed out that this enables the lag in driving time vis-à-vis their European counterparts to be reduced from 20% to around 3% (FR0010197F), and feel that this bears out the ideas encapsulated in the slogan: working longer hours to earn more money (FR0502109F).

The passage of the Bill through Parliament cut the grass from under the feet of the four transport unions, the French Democratic Confederation of Labour (Confédération française démocratique du travail, CFDT), the French Christian Workers’ Confederation (Confédération française des travailleurs chrétiens, CFTC, the General Confederation of Labour - Force ouvrière (Confédération générale du travail-Force ouvrière, CGT-FO), and the National Federation of Road Transport Drivers (Fédération nationale des chauffeurs routiers, FNCR) that had filed an appeal in January 2005 at the Conseil d'État aimed at having the decree of 12 November 2004 annulled. The majority of the unions expressed vehement criticism.

The CFDT, in particular, openly stated its intention to launch an attack on the adopted law in the Conseil d’Etat. It considers that the incorporation of the European directives into French law 'has served as a pretext for employers to worsen employment conditions'. The CFTC fears that this deregulation of working time may be extended to employees in all sectors by June, through the (currently being debated) new draft directive on working time, forcing 'the maximum weekly working time through the roof'. The CGT-FO transport industry branch, which had encouraged its membership to mobilise against this supranational law, has criticised the risks linked to hours worked in excess of norms. It is anxious about the averaging out of overtime over a given period and the loss of extra hours paid at a 50% higher rate. It has pointed out that this worsens conditions in the French road haulage industry, in which 'for the last five years', employees 'have been subject to the consequences of the multi-stop pick-up and delivery practices that enables a company from an EU member-state to make journeys within France for which staff are paid in compliance with prevailing employment conditions in the firm’s country of origin' (FR0503105F).

The French Confederation of Professional and Managerial Staff-General Confederation of Professional and Managerial Staff, (Confédération française de l'encadrement-Confédération générale des cadres, CFE-CGC) transport industry branch is also concerned, and on 14 April 2005, it called for a day of action, to be held on the solidarity day to be held on 16 May (the former Whitsun Bank Holiday Monday) feeling that 'working for no pay may be viewed as a case of modern-day slavery'.

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