| We hope you enjoy your visit. You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free. Join our community! If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features: |
| Capping the hours worked in a week | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Oct 25 2004, 02:33 AM (122 Views) | |
| captain_proton_au | Oct 25 2004, 02:33 AM Post #1 |
![]()
A Robot in Disguise
![]()
|
Not that I usually put to much faith in french ideals, but their attempts at legislating for a capped working week may have some merit. I have included an article from a french legal site explaining the legislation, and then an article from the BBC on its affect in France. While it might not be having the effect they intended in france, the ideal behind it may have some merit. Could a similar type of legislation work / be beneficial in your country?. It may be unworkable in the private sector, but what about the public sector. Or a system where hours worked over a specific limit incur an extra financial reimbursement, yes I know thats usually called overtime, but not everyone gets paid overtime. Now before all you Americans start jumpimg up and down about the state impeaching on your rights, yes we can predict how you will all feel on this issue, thats a given. This is mainly a 'what if' scenario, or are there any merits to this idea thread. You really dont need to tell us about your rights. So, some things to think about, it doesnt have to be the french model, just some type of legislation that tries to limit the working week better: ------------------------------------------------------------------ * Would such laws have a positive or negative effect on employment? * Would consumer spending increase if people spent less time at work? * Would less work hours mean less stress, and therefore less of a burden on the healthcare system? * Are there any parts that would be workable? ----------------------------------------------------------------------
but also...
|
| Offline | Profile | | Quote | ^ |
| doctortobe | Oct 25 2004, 07:26 AM Post #2 |
|
Speak softly, and carry a 57 megaton stick!
|
Put simply, you would see an increase in jobs being exported overseas. Business owners would find the idea of an enforced work week repugnant and would go to a country where they can work people 12 hours a day. Rights aside, you must remember that the only thing that keeps industries in Western nations is the quality of our work. The more labor laws that you tack onto businesses, the less that quality work means to the business owners. Eventually, the quantity and cheapness of 3rd world workers overcomes the quality work and ergo, you have businesses moving there. |
| Offline | Profile | | Quote | ^ |
| somerled | Oct 25 2004, 09:09 AM Post #3 |
|
Admiral MacDonald RN
|
Not a bad idea - just two things will stop it from happening. Employers will be reluctant to take on more workers and train them in order to ensure 24/7 365d/y processes are covered properly by blue and white collar workers - it is more expensive to employ more workers than to pay the existing workers overtime to cover staff shortages or increased production hours / utilitisation. The Employees will be reluctant to give up paid overtime for working extra hours, weekends, holidays and on rostered days off. It is these overtime and unsociable hours payments that make jobs that would otherwize be poorly paid so attractive, by increasing the earning ability of those workers who are paid for overtime 2 or 3 or more times what they would get if they worked a 5 day week (8 hr/d) only. These workers are used to earning such money and would find adjusting to a greatly reduced take home pay difficult - even impossible. BHP tried this stunt on professional employees (like myself in 1994) and essentially asked all staff to accept new working conditions where overtime wasn't going to be paid unless there were exceptional circumstances (a unreasonable overtime burden , and when these conditions kicked in was not spelled out - and left at the discretion of the group / unit / team menagers) Needless to say - I refused to accept the changed working conditions as my job involved frequent call-ins often at unsociable hours, weekend work, frequent overtime to cover the jobs requirements (and I stood to loose 50% of my earning capability at least , I already limited the amount of overtime I claimed payment for - often working flexitime instead - if it suited my family and social life, and I never claimed payment anything for less than 2 hours overtime - that's just professionalism. |
| Offline | Profile | | Quote | ^ |
| Admiralbill_gomec | Dec 1 2004, 03:16 PM Post #4 |
|
UberAdmiral
|
Or even 8 hours a day! |
| Offline | Profile | | Quote | ^ |
| gvok | Dec 3 2004, 11:11 AM Post #5 |
|
Unregistered
|
For industrial jobs sure. Some jobs cannot be exported such as the service industry and businesses which serve the local economy. |
| | Quote | ^ | |
| « Previous Topic · Politics and World Events Forum · Next Topic » |




3:19 AM Jul 11