Les quarante heures dans les mines de charbon sous le Front populaire

The principle of a 40-hour work week – with people earning the same salary but working fewer hours – has been depicted in ILO studies as having been one of the cures for the Great Depression of the 1930s. The leftwing Front Populaire government that came to power in France in 1936 adopted this princ...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Aurélie Philippe
Format: Article
Language:fra
Published: La Nouvelle Revue du Travail 2015-11-01
Series:La Nouvelle Revue du Travail
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Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/nrt/2361
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Summary:The principle of a 40-hour work week – with people earning the same salary but working fewer hours – has been depicted in ILO studies as having been one of the cures for the Great Depression of the 1930s. The leftwing Front Populaire government that came to power in France in 1936 adopted this principle and enacted a 40-hour work week law on 21 June of that year. By analysing the law’s empirical application - specifically in the Nord-Pas de Calais coal mining region - the paper develops arguments countering Alfred Sauvy’s criticisms of it. The idea here is that the law’s application depended on the economic and social information at social partners’ disposal, and on the national and international context. The social partners, French state, employers and trade unions all interpreted the law in a way that satisfied their own interests and demands. In the end, its implementation highlighted the growing role that the French State and trade unions would come to play in the country’s collective bargaining processes.
ISSN:2263-8989