ABSTRACT
This chapter assesses the forms and effects of worker participation in developing and monitoring agreements; the reducing working hours (RWH) process can reveal complete changes in union strategy and practice. It highlights the problems presented by the influence of and the direction taken by French trade unionism. The chapter analyses the negotiation and implementation of agreements following the Robien and Aubry laws in France gives us some idea of the nature and degree of worker involvement in the RWH process. The reduction of working hours has a twofold impact on workers, both in their working lives and in their social, family and private lives. In June 1996, the French Parliament adopted a law known as the Robien law, named after its author. It allowed the reduction of working hours in firms in the private sector, with state aid in the form of exemption from social security contributions, in order to promote job saving or the recruitment of new workers.
