The Long Road to Reduced Working Time

The 35-hour week didn't emerge suddenly from the mind of socialist theorists. It represented the culmination of over a century of struggle to limit working hours. Understanding its origins requires tracing the long history of French efforts to humanize industrial labor.

In 1841, France passed one of Europe's first laws limiting child labor, restricting children under 12 to eight-hour days in factories. While poorly enforced, it established the principle that the state could intervene to protect workers from market excesses. The 1848 Revolution briefly established a 10-hour day in Paris, though this was quickly reversed. The Paris Commune of 1871 implemented an eight-hour day in municipal workshops, showing what worker power could achieve.

The real breakthrough came with the Popular Front government of 1936. Amid massive strikes involving over 2 million workers, Léon Blum's socialist-led coalition passed the Matignon Agreements, reducing the work week from 48 to 40 hours and guaranteeing two weeks of paid vacation. André Chamson, a writer who witnessed the first paid vacations, described scenes of wonder: "Workers who had never seen the sea stood transfixed on Mediterranean beaches, tears streaming down their faces."

This reduction wasn't just about leisure—it reflected a philosophy that technical progress should benefit workers, not just capital owners. If machines made production more efficient, why should workers labor the same hours for the same pay? The 40-hour week became sacred to French workers, a concrete achievement that distinguished their society from Anglo-Saxon capitalism.

Post-war governments, focused on reconstruction, allowed working hours to creep upward through overtime. By the 1960s, many French workers were laboring 45-50 hours weekly, though with substantial overtime pay. The May 1968 uprising put working time back on the agenda, with students and workers jointly demanding more than material prosperity—they wanted time for life, culture, and personal development.

François Mitterrand's 1981 election brought renewed focus on reducing working time. His government cut the work week to 39 hours and added a fifth week of paid vacation. But these incremental changes fell short of socialist ambitions. More radical proposals circulated among left intellectuals, including the economist Pierre Larrouturou's detailed plans for a 32-hour week that would, he argued, create millions of jobs while maintaining productivity.