Reduction of work time : a categorization of businesses
and how they are dealing with it,
by Michel Pépin, Jean-Claude Sardas, Dominique Tonneau.
The article gives the highlights of a research study carried out in 1981 (before the legislation creating a 39-hour work week and a fifth week of vacation) on how businesses are handling the reduction of hours worked. Twenty firms were studied, a group with widely varied characteristics, care was taken to note especially the problems particular to these differences.
The study suggests a classification of five types of business, in terms of their behavior. This grouping is based upon the greater or lesser ability to maneuver, taking into account the possibility of internal reorganization and the situation of the business externally, in the market. It includes the following items, giving the main characteristics of the problem:
Growth: the reduction of work hours is used as a base of operations, but it assumes an expanding market which thus allows the length of time equipment is used to be increased.
Reorganization: the firm employs a rationalization of its organization which permits it to maintain production while limiting or putting a freeze on hiring.
Productivity: in an organization which remains unchanged structurally, the reduction of work time is compensated, as far as possible, by using existing productivity reserves.
Hiring : for reasons peculiar to each business, the creation of employment is more or less proportional to the reduction of work hours. This means higher sales prices due to additional costs.
Repercussion: a situation identical to the preceding one, but here one runs up against financial obstacles; there are two possible solutions: no hiring and thus limiting production, or hiring continues but with a backlash effect on market prices and the risk that segments of the market will be lost.
The study also accents the difficulties connected with the new forms of organization in the working world.
Presentation of the Forecast Direction Model for energy needs, by Pierre Alain Baudet. The model, in which six sectors and four types of energy are distinguished, econometrically determines short-term needs in terms of macroeco- nomic variables as well as energy utilization costs. These costs are related to the cost of imported energy sources which are dependent upon the cost of crude oil, which in turn is an exogenous input. Aside from primary consumption per energy category, the model evaluates imports, after deduction of national production and stock variations, as well as fiscal revenue associated with the consumption of energy products. An estimate of need relationships makes it possible to show that prices have a generally significant effect on those relationships. The consequences of a 10% increase in the price of crude oil leads to a short-term drop of 0.8% over the entire range of primary needs, according to the model.
