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SUMMARY:Loi de Robien: A little known French 4-day week legislation
DTSTART:20260624T110000Z
DTEND:20260624T120000Z
DTSTAMP:20260429T234248Z
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DESCRIPTION:\nFor this European Work-Time Network's webinar\, we are joine
 d by Michel Cermak who will talk about the little-known Loi de Robien: How
  French Legislation Supported 400 Companies to Transition to a Four-Day Wo
 rking Week.\n\nHow many of us are familiar with the Loi de Robien? Enacted
  in 1996 primarily as a legislative response to rising structural unemploy
 ment\, this largely overlooked law offers a compelling case study at the i
 ntersection of labour law\, macroeconomic policy\, and organisational chan
 ge.\n\n	 \n\nThe relationship between working time reduction and job crea
 tion remains\, of course\, a contested terrain in labour economics. Much o
 f the contemporary debate has centred on the 100-80-100 model — full pay
 \, reduced hours\, increased productivity. Yet as Juliet Schor argued in h
 er widely cited TED Talk\, this paradigm has significant limitations: comp
 ressing the same workload into fewer hours is neither universally desirabl
 e nor feasible. For teachers\, healthcare workers\, or flight attendants\,
  the issue is not intensification but relief — a point illustrated by th
 e Gothenburg experiment in elder care\, where a shift to a six-hour workin
 g day was accompanied by the recruitment of additional staff to cover the 
 hours no longer worked.\n\n	 \n\nThe Loi de Robien offered a different fr
 amework. Companies were eligible for a reduction in social contribution if
  — and only if — they both reduced working hours and created new jobs.
  Of the 2\,953 companies that used the law\, 482 adopted its most advanced
  provision: a working week reduced from 39 hours to 33 hours 30 minutes or
  less\, paired with a minimum 10% increase in headcount. Crucially\, becau
 se new employees also contributed to social security\, the net fiscal impa
 ct on public finances was largely offset. This legislation has been largel
 y forgotten in part because it was replaced by the more widely known « 35
  hour week » Aubry laws.\n\n	 \n\nIn this webinar\, Michel Cermak will r
 econstruct the legislative history of the Loi de Robien\, survey the limit
 ed but instructive body of research published on its implementation\, and 
 trace the trajectories of some of the companies that embraced its most amb
 itious provisions. \n\n	 \n\nMichel co-authored the book « Mode d’empl
 oi pour la semaine de 4 jours en Belgique » and worked with MEP Pierre La
 rrouturou at the European Parliament on creating an EU pilot project on wo
 rking time reduction and the 4 day week.\n\nThe event will be hosted onlin
 e at 1pm Brussels time on Wednesday 24th June. Our speaker will deliver 
 a short presentation on the subject\, followed by an audience Q&A.\n\n--\n
 \n	 \n\n\nJoin Zoom Meeting\n\nhttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/85484273125?pwd=
 IdafzWNprZwRKqIgnhRffkq0qLjCGM.1\n\n		 \n\nMeeting ID: 854 8427 3125\n\nP
 asscode: 700034\n\n\n	 \n
LOCATION:https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85484273125?pwd=IdafzWNprZwRKqIgnhRffkq
 0qLjCGM.1   - BE
ORGANIZER:European Work-Time Network
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