Nicot, Anne-Marie

The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, INSEE [1]) carried out the Survey on Professional Activity (/enquête activité professionnelle/) during the fourth quarter of 2007 among 30,000 employees in the private sector – excluding workers in micro enterprises and executive managers. The survey was conducted by mail, with a high response rate of 64%. [1] http://www.insee.fr/

Since 2002, the legal weekly working time in France is fixed at 35 hours for all companies, regardless of size. This legally defined working time is the term of reference to define part-time and overtime work. The ‘35 hours’ law introduced the possibility to reduce working time on an annual basis – for instance, workers continue to work about 40 hours a week and the working time reduction takes the form of additional days of leave. Thus, working time is increasingly more frequently calculated on an annual basis: working 35 hours a week corresponds to an annual working time of 1,607 hours or 218 days.

The third wave of the ‘Generation 98’ survey (in French) [1], conducted by the Centre for Studies and Research on Qualifications (Centre d’Études et de Recherches sur les Qualifications, CEREQ [2]) in the autumn of 2005, focuses on the career path of a sample of 16,000 young people who finished their initial education in 1998, regardless of their level of qualification or specialisation. The survey covers their first seven years of working life and thus provides detailed information on the job(s) occupied since they left school, their educational background and their family situation. [1] http://www.cereq.fr/generationquatrevingtdixhuit.htm [2] http://www.cereq.fr/index.htm

There has been huge changes in recent decades in the content, organisation and employment status of work. Results from the 2005 Working Conditions Survey in France indicate that besides the usual trends and changes across categories – such as economic sectors or occupational groups – working conditions have changed in an uneven way across the salaried population, with some subgroups experiencing higher demands. The second major development is the growing impact of psychosocial factors at the workplace. This is a new dimension, where the challenges are high and acquiring information on the subject necessitates developing new tools such as updated surveys and new monitoring systems.

According to the national Labour Force Survey, in 2005 some 14% of the French active population and 9% of employees were working 48 hours or more a week. The frequency of these long working weeks tends to increase for self-employed people and to slightly decrease for employees. However, between 1990 and 2005, the gap in terms of length between the working time of management staff and other employees increased from six hours to eight and a half hours a week.

A study by the French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, INSEE [1]), carried out in 2006, has examined the work situation regarding persons who are directly employed by individuals. The study (in French) [2] does not include other jobs which these workers could have in addition to direct employment by individuals, nor does it cover the hours of work done for individuals as employees of a public or private organisation – mainly in the field of home help. [1] http://www.insee.fr/ [2] http://www.insee.fr/fr/themes/document.asp?reg_id=0&ref_id=ip1173

Similar to the British Workplace Industrial Relations Survey–Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WIRS–WERS), the Industrial relations and company bargaining (/Relations professionnelles et négociations d’enterprise/, REPONSE) survey offers an in-depth analysis of industrial relations in France. The analysis includes an examination of the links between human resource management (HRM), work organisation, economic strategies and corporate performance.

On 15 November 2007, the French Constitutional Council (Conseil constitutionnel [1]) invalidated an article in a project of law that would have introduced ‘ethnic statistics’ in France. This decision is based on the principle that ethnic origins and race cannot be considered as eligible objective data to describe French society. Thus, an assessment of ethnic discrimination will not be possible through general statistics, and will only rely on surveys such as the one described in this article. [1] http://www.conseil-constitutionnel.fr/

At first glance, the situation of part-time workers seems very homogenous: 83% of part-time workers are women, while 90% of part-time jobs are found in the services sector and 60% of these jobs are held by clerks. However, when working time [1] organisation is considered, the situation of part-time workers appears to be much more variable. [1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/industrial-relations-dictionary/working-time

In France, the female activity rate has increased from 50% in 1970 to 75% in 2000. The female activity rate is the number of women in the labour force including economically active and unemployed people given as a percentage of the population of working age (15–64 years).