France bears to the right...

To avoid the approaching iceberg...

France's parliament has passed a law which effectively ends the country's compulsory 35-hour working week. The new law will allow companies to strike individual deals with unions on working hours and overtime.

Since coming into office last year, President Nicolas Sarkozy has blamed the 35-hour week for damaging France's economic competitiveness.

Of course, it isn't all clear sailing...

The bill was supported by the Senate's centre-right majority but opposed by the opposition Socialists.

The Senate also adopted other key measures reforming rules on strikes and unemployment benefits, tightening up the criteria for receiving them.

But you do what you can.

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RELATED: SUMMER in France...

...is usually just a lull between the strikes of spring and those of the autumn rentrée. But this year ministers are heading off on their holidays amid an unsettling calm.

It is not just that the government won a perilous vote on constitutional reform by a margin of one this week.

It is also that the union-led protest movement against President Nicolas Sarkozy's reforms has lost its edge.

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