'They get one hour for breaks, chat for three hours and work for three!' US tycoon tells French government why he WON'T be rescuing 'lazy, workers who talk too much' at doomed tire factory

Chairman of US tire giant Titan International attacks work ethic in France



Maurice Taylor, aka 'The Grizz', tells French industry minister: 'You are lazy'



He REFUSES to buy Goodyear tire plant which employs 1,170 people

Goodyear announced it was cutting its workforce in France by 39 per cent



Even International Monetary Fund boss has said French workers 'lethargic'



'The Grizz': Tire tycoon Maurice Taylor said French workers were 'lazy' and 'overpaid'

An American industrialist has provoked fury in France after attacking the workforce of a factory he was asked to take over.

Tyre and wheel magnate Maurice Taylor said he would be ‘stupid’ to take on staff at the ailing Goodyear plant in Amiens because they stood around chatting and worked only three hours a day.

Mr Taylor, who stood as a Republican presidential candidate in 1996, has a track record of turning around failing businesses around the world.

He was approached by the French government to take over the Amiens factory after Goodyear announced it was closing it, putting 1,173 jobs at risk.

But after a trip round the base, the famously abrasive boss of Titan International told French industry minister Arnaud Montebourg he can ‘keep his so-called workers’.



Yesterday he told the Daily Mail there was no comparison between the hard-working staff at his UK plant in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, and the union-cosseted tyre makers he found in northern France.



‘At Titan Steel Wheels in Kidderminster, we can have our disagreements but they work,’ he said.

‘They have an hour off for lunch but the rest of the time they work. When I went round the Goodyear factory, the workers have a seven-hour day. One hour they’re paid to do nothing but eat, scratch themselves or whatever.



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'Lazy': Workers leaving the doomed Goodyear tire plant in Amiens, northern France, which Mr Taylor has refused to rescue as Goodyear announces a 39 per cent cut to their French workforce

Blunt: The Titan International boss was scathing in his assessment of the work ethic of staff at the Goodyear factory in Amiens

‘But the problem was that they spent three more hours just moseying around, talking.

‘But when I told their union leaders this, they told me that’s the French way!’

Mr Taylor said he was stunned by the attitude of the factory’s myriad union leaders – led by the local head of the communist-backed CGT union – when he met them at a hotel to discuss how he might rescue the plant.

FRENCH WORK FOR JUST 35 HOURS A WEEK (AND ECONOMY IS TANKING)

The French have some of the best working conditions in the world - but its economy is flatlining. It has been beset by the combined effects of a rigid job market, complex labour laws, and fraught labour relations.

Under socialist rules introduced in 2000 workers put in 35 hours a week, down from 39 hours a week. Yet its jobless rate is at a 13-year high. More than one in ten of the workforce is unemployed.

France's economy stalled in 2012 and growth contracted by 0.3 percent in the final quarter of 2012. If it contracts again in the first quarter of 2013, it will be back in recession — officially defined as two straight quarters of negative growth. Public spending already accounts for almost 57% of national output, the public debt stands at over 90% of GDP and in January 2012 it lost its AAA grade from Standard & Poor’s, a rating agency. French President Francois Hollande is desperately trying to make the country, the world's fifth largest economy, more competitive by slashing government spending and relaxing Labour regulations. But he faces opposition from the traditionally strong union movement which resists changes to employment law. In January the country's powerful unions finally agreed to labour law reforms following talks that had dragged on for three months. The measures will allow for greater latitude in slashing salaries and firing staff, but will also offer more protection for employees, including better health cover. In France, the legal length of the working week is 35 hours in all types of companies. The working day may not exceed 10 hours, and employees may not work for more than 4.5 hours without a break.The maximum working day may be extended to 12 hours under a collective agreement.

In principle, no more than 48 hours a week may be worked, 44 hours per week on average over a period of 12 consecutive weeks (up to a maximum of 46 hours, under conditions). Workers are entitled to a break of at least 20 minutes every six hours, and all staff must be allowed a daily rest period of 11 consecutive hours - although that figure can be reduced to nine in some cases.

The minimum weekly rest period is 35 consecutive hours (11 hours plus a 24 consecutive hour rest period per week). Sundays are largely considered to be rest days in France. The average salary in France is

€20,783, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, significantly higher than the OECD average of €16,749.



‘The first thing out of the CGT guy’s mouth was, “You’ve got to guarantee our jobs for life”,’ said Mr Taylor.

‘They were telling us, “We’re not going to agree to anything until you do what we say”.

‘That’s when I said, “Hey you’ve got it all backwards. I’ve got enough people thinking I’m nuts even attempting to come over and run this facility and spend millions of dollars on it”.’

‘The French worker can be as productive as anyone else when he works, but he’s not working,’ Mr Taylor said.



The US businessman, who is based in Illinois, has told the French government in no uncertain terms he will not be taking up its offer of taking on the factory.

‘Do you think we’re stupid?’, Mr Taylor asked Mr Montebourg in a letter published in French business newspaper Les Echos. ‘I’ve visited this factory several times. The French workers are paid high wages but only work three hours,’ he said.



‘They get one hour for breaks and lunch, talk for three hours and work for three.’

He warned that Chinese and Indian tyre makers were taking over the market in Europe, adding: ‘In five years, Michelin won’t be producing tyres in France. You can keep your so-called workers.’



Mr Taylor’s remarks have provoked anger in France where the high tax, big government policies of socialist president Francois Hollande are raising fears about declining competitiveness.

Mr Montebourg has declined to comment on the American’s letter, saying only: ‘I don’t want to harm the interests of France.’

The CGT union – the main target of Mr Taylor’s anger – said the ‘insulting’ letter showed that its author was more of a ‘lunatic’ than someone fit to ‘hold the reins of a multinational’.

Four years ago, former French finance minister Christine Lagarde, now head of the International Monetary Fund, also branded French workers as 'lethargic'.

She told French newspapers: ‘Instead of thinking about their work, people think about their weekends, organising, planning and engineering time off.

‘If you say to a French person, “would you like to be an entrepreneur?” all they do is run scared.’

A recent global study of working hours also revealed the French worked the fewest hours of any country on earth.



The report by Swiss bank UBS found the French work for just 1,480 hours a year, with 27 days annual holiday meaning they have more free time than any other nation on the planet.

Britons work 1,782 hours a year - 301 more than the French - and have 20 days holiday a year, making us the world's 36th most lazy nation, it was found.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co's Amiens Nord plant employs 1,250 workers, who have been battling demands that they work more shifts or accept layoffs.



The government said in January that the site faced imminent closure.

'The French way': Mr Taylor wrote to the French industry minister Arnaud Montebourg (left) saying that French workers are 'lazy'. He said he visited the factory in Amiens (right) several times where the 'workforce gets paid high wages but works only three hours'



'They all run scared': Former French finance minister Christine Lagarde, now head of the International Monetary Fund, said French workers were 'lethargic' and scared of becoming entrepreneurs