Europeans suffering more hours on the job

The Globe and Mail (UK) ^ | 12 February 2005 | Douglas Saunders

[Viking2002]

Poor fookin' babies, having to (*GASP!*) be productive for a living. Heart-wrenching, ain't it? Lazy Socialist bastard parasites.

[Toidylop]

Suffering more hours on the job!!! What's about just working to bring their bacon home... These Euroweenies seem to think earning is someone else's job. Geez...

[anniegetyourgun]

I realize it's just the Glob and Bale....er, Globe and Mail, but there's just so much in this article that is inaccurate. Oh well, I guess they are just reporting what was said. No need to balance that with the facts, eh?

[GeronL]

good grief these people are lazier than our welfare queens

and they spend all that free time doing drugs, drinking, aborting babies and not going to church.

[Drango]

allow people in the private sector to work as many as 48 hours a week.

Allow? How nice of them.

[Magnolia]

Good grief...no wonder Europe is going to Hades in a handbasket.

[whipitgood]

"..allow people in the private sector to work...."
Does anybody else see an oxymoron here? Is it the private sector, or isn't it?

[NZerFromHK]

More than one Canadian FRers told me that in their home country, this filth is considered centre-right in orientation. My guess is that their definition of centre-right is a bit kooky when compared to American, or oops, even Australian, standards.

[Jagdgewehr]

"We have the highest productivity because employees have confidence in their future -- the school is free, the medicine is free, the employment is secure and comes with guaranteed benefits. This makes them devoted to their work."

Spoken like a true serf.

[buccaneer81]

In a devil's bargain last week, they were forced to decide between time and security. In a shop-floor ballot, the company gave them two choices: They could increase their workweek from 35 hours to 37.5 hours, at the same salary. Or they could keep their leisurely working hours and 80 of them would have to be laid off. There was little doubt how the vote would turn out. Of the 207 employees who participated, 180 voted to risk their jobs to avoid working 90 more minutes a week.

This paragraph tells the whole story. These are the same people who went on their annual August vacations and left their parents to die in the heat a couple of years ago.

They are beneath contempt. If there is a Western nation that deserves the wrath of God, it has to be France.

[stboz]

Zut! Schweinhund! Sunny beaches!!

[jocon307]

"France's legislature voted to crack open the 35-hour workweek and allow people in the private sector to work as many as 48 hours a week."

Oh the humanity alert!

[anniegetyourgun]

The G & M is so far left it isn't funny. However, my Canadian friends say the same. I guess if you swim in this soup, you assume everyone else does too.

[april15Bendovr]

[JRandomFreeper]

After a full week of training with the USAFR, I spent today as slave labor (read: no pay) at a 4-star restaurant working under a stellar chef. It applies to my internship.

Many Americans are NOT lazy. I'm not sure about the french.

/john

[hinckley buzzard]

"Even the French officials responsible for the change acknowledge that the 35-hour week had little negative effect on productivity, profitability or competitiveness."

I wonder how they measure productivity for the 25% of the labor force who are government employees.

[Congressman Billybob]

The Globe and Mail says that "economists" find "no major effect, positive or negative" from the shorter work week, required vacations, etc. Must be European economists who believe that you CAN get something for nothing.

All the economies of Western Europe are down the dumper, compared to the US economy. The article doesn't mention that, which is the driving force behind the retreat from this bad idea. But it does feature the 270 employees of one shop who voted overwhelmingly to have many of them laid off, rather than all of them increase their work week to a (mind boggling) 37.5 hours of work, every week.

History tells us about the Luddites who thought they could bring back the past by sabotaging the machinery in this newfangled factories. Seems like the Globe and Mail is staffed entirely with intellectual Luddites.

The biggest fools are the ones who are too ignorant to admit the possibility that they might be wrong. The G&M has retired that trophy.

Congressman Billybob

Click for latest, "Was Howard Dean behind a Daring Art Theft?"

[planekT]

...I realize it's just the Glob and Bale....er, Globe and Mail, but there's just so much in this article that is inaccurate...

Like this maybe?

from the article:
"If you compare France with the U.S., the Americans are working quite a bit more, but the best guess is the output per hour worked is about the same,"

Sorry, but I seriously doubt that is the "best guess", let alone accurate.

Let them keep kidding themselves.

[Pan_Yan]

Uugghhh ...

...35 hours to 37.5 hours ... avoid working 90 more minutes a week.

Are the hours shorter in Europe or are their schools failing in math too?