A JOB FOR LIFE

In France, everybody talks about how people have life-long positions. For example, many of the researchers at the Institut Pasteur have been there for many years and and don't look like they are going anywhere. The reason is this: in France, if you hold a job for 5 years your employer MUST offer you a LIFELONG POSITION. Yes, unbelievable I know. Another example of how socialist France is. This is why at the Institut Pasteur you can only be a post-doc for a maximum of 4.5 years.

Another thing is the unemployment benefits. It is proportional to the salary of your previous job. Crazy huh? You will receive an unemployment allowance based on the following conditions:

• you have not become unemployed through your own decision
• you have made at least 6 months of social security contributions in France during the previous 22 months
• you are less than 60 years old
• you are physically capable of working

The allowance is paid for 7 months (if you worked at least 6 months over last 22 months) or for 22 months (if you have worked at least 14 months over last 2 years). The monthly allowance usually starts at 50% of previous salary and decreases over time. To receive it, you need to be actively looking for work and may be asked to provide proof of this.

And, to top it all off, France has a 35 hour working week (effective since 2000), with 5 weeks of annual holidays! And the hours you work are accumulative, so if you work 40 hour weeks, each week you rack up an additional 5 hours of holidays to add to your 5 weeks. In addition:

- there is a statutory requirement for an interrupted period of one day's rest per week, which in principle should be on a Sunday; - an employee must have, in principle, a minimum of 11 hours' consecutive rest per day; - there is in principle a limit of 48 hours per week, and even in exceptional circumstances, working time may not exceed 60 hours per week. Working time may not exceed an average of 44 hours per week for a period of 12 consecutive weeks. Anyway, so today it's Sunday, my (legally obliged) day of rest, so I think I will can the plan of going to the lab and go out for lunch instead!