About 50 years ago, a spaghetti western directed by the famous filmmaker Sergio Leone and starring, among others, Clint Eastwood, titled “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” achieved considerable success with the public.
If he had been around at that time—actually, he had just been born—we are sure that Eric Ciotti would never have claimed the main role, that of the good guy. He, who likes to be seen as the villain even if it’s sometimes just a posture—in marketing language, we would call it product positioning.
So, not content with being the Mr. Authority of Les Républicains (LR), always on the lookout for the slightest opportunity to demand a tough line, he has just taken on another role, that of the wall-breaker of the 35-hour workweek, one of the battle horses of the so-called liberal right.
This decision will be submitted to the Technical Committee on October 9. Until then, we can imagine that there will be numerous reactions.
The first voices to rise are those of Francis Tujague and Valérie Tomasini, the communist officials, who, aligned with the departmental president on the critique of the government’s policy, are outraged: “If the difficulties resulting from these political choices are real, it is inconceivable to impose them on our staff, whose commitment you rightly praise.”
What effect? Probably none, given the overwhelming majority (50 seats out of 54) of the LR within the Departmental Assembly.
The president of the Alpes-Maritimes Departmental Council has thus attacked Martine Aubry’s 35-hour workweek law, which came into force in 2000 and, according to him, “destabilized, disorganized, and hindered the administrations, which no longer have the capacity to carry out their missions of general interest.”
For this, it is necessary to return to the legal weekly working hours (1,607 hours annually) from the current 1,568 hours by eliminating three annual vacation days.
For the RTT days born from the transition to the 35-hour workweek, the department wants to halve the days that can currently be credited each year for overtime, reducing the maximum number of RTT days to 11 instead of 22.
These measures are equivalent to the creation of more than 100 full-time jobs each year.
Since 2009, when elected, the department: 340 net public job cuts since 2009 with the non-replacement of two-thirds of retirees, reduction of the vehicle fleet, and communication expenses.
As one can imagine, the recipients of this decision did not appreciate this unexpected “show of force.” Unions are already considering days of action.
An unpopular measure? That’s the goal.
Moreover, and as if by chance, the LR announce that “the 35-hour workweek [will be] at the heart of a working meeting, [this] Wednesday, on labor code reform.”
As the saying goes in these cases: there are those who talk and those who act. Is the message clear?
And then, if one has chosen to be the bad guy, one is there to give slaps and not to dole out caresses—right?
