``An hour more for yourself is an hour more,'' said Christiane Grimm, whose job includes slapping labels on jars, sorting through crates of fruit and watching over bubbling vats of jam. ``There's lots you can do with it.''Surprisingly, the Beyers ended up happy, too. The company, one of thousands of French enterprises that have reorganised their businesses because of a 16-month-old law creating one of the shortest workweeks in the world, believes that it is far better off than before.

In the reshuffle, Philippe Beyer split his 18 employees into two teams and staggered their shifts. His factory now operates 12 hours a day, up from eight. And it produces 30 per cent morethan it did last year with only two extra employees.

The promise of 39 hours of pay for 35 hours of work was a campaign plank that helped catapult Lionel Jospin's leftist coalition to power in the 1997 Parliament elections. And it remains the glue that keeps Socialists, Communists and Greens together. It was aimed at creating as many as a million jobs in a country that has struggled with a double-digit rate of unemployment for years.

But many experts think that this bold experiment -- which business leaders had warned would cripple France's economy -- is not going to be a cure-all for the nearly three million unemployed.

Instead, it could accomplish something the leftist governing coalition never aimed for: a kind of housecleaning in the French workplace that will tear the cobwebs from French industry and lead to a more productive and flexible workforce, as it did at Beyer.

``The primary goal of this policy is very unlikely,'' said Emanuel Ferry, an economist at Banque National de Paris, who isstudying he policy. ``But it seems to be having a backdoor effect. It is providing a very good opportunity to renovate the workplace. And it is introducing these elements - productivity, flexibility - quietly without triggering social unrest. So even if the direct goal of job creation is not achieved, it may still not necessarily be a bad thing for the economy.''

That may be, but there is hardly a policy that has caused as much argument in France as the 35-hour week. While labour was an early advocate of the idea, many unions have recently demonstrated against it, fearing that the way it is being carried out will freeze salary levels and reverse hard-fought gains in employee rights. Businesses have protested, too. Last month, some 30,000 industrialists and executives gathered in an empty Paris conference centre to wave placards and chant slogans deploring the policy. They say it will cost too much and destroy France's competitiveness.

Average citizens also seem to be losing their appetite for it. Surveysshow that the idea was very popular when first proposed, but resistance grew the more the French considered it. A recent poll found that less than 10 per cent of France's citizens now believe that they are going to benefit from shorter workweeks. Most people suspect that one way or another, they will be inconvenienced. Either way, it is a subject almost sure to start a fight.

``People feel very strongly about it,'' Beyer said. ``In this country we are a little retrograde, we live the way we lived 30 years ago, and this is forcing change and so people are uneasy with it.'' So far, there is little proof that the 35-hour week has created many jobs. Labour Ministry officials said in Parliament recently that the plan had created or saved 120,000 new jobs. But one legislator called the figures ``thin air'', and most economists say a more realistic number would probably be half that.

Opponents also point out that the government has been subsidising the transition with business tax cuts and otherincentives.

France's economy grew at a healthy rate of 3.2 per cent in 1998, and is expected to do nearly as well this year. The unemployment rate has dropped to 11.1 in August from a high of 12.6 per cent in June 1997. But few see much connection between the new jobs and the 35-hour policy.

``The 35 hours was a political decision,'' a finance ministry official said, ``but it may become a really positive thing. Nothing was moving before. Now suddenly everyone has to go back and look at the way we have been doing business. People are talking and thinking and being creative.''

The process of carrying out this complicated law, passed in June 1998, is still in its early stages. This month, Parliament passed a tangle of more than 100 amendments spelling out exactly how and when the policy should be instituted. One rule: All companies with 20 employees or more must operate with a 35-hour workweek by the year 2002. So far, only about 16,000 businesses, or little more than 1 per cent of eligible Frenchemployers, have formally made plans for the conversion.

Economists say the brunt of the law will be felt unevenly. Some businesses like the Beyer factory will benefit. Others, including service industries, are likely to have a much harder time.

Some entrepreneurs are already taking steps to protect themselves. Dr. Thierry Sandri employs 19 people in his medical lab on the outskirts of Paris. He says he will do all that he can to avoid hiring a 20th person and bring the 35-hour workweek into his business.

eToy festival offer

eToys Inc., the top Internet toy retailer, has said that it has planned a nationwide marketing campaign with GapKids and babyGap, units of the clothing retailer Gap Inc., during the holiday season, reports New York Times.

The promotion, called `Holiday Get-Together', will be online at eToys.com and in GapKids and babyGap stores. Newspaper ads and banners on the Internet will announce the promotion, which will run through December 15. The in-store promotion isexpected to last through November 28.

The promotion begins as retailers prepare for the crucial holiday shopping season. eToys gets about two-thirds of its sales from October to December, and it faces more rivals this year, including the number one online retailer Amazon.com Inc., which added toys recently.

The promotion will offer GapKids and babyGap customer a $10 eToys gift certificate with any purchase of $75 or more. Shoppers with a spending of $75 or more at eToys.com will receive a $10 gift certificate redeemable at GapKids and babyGap. The Gap has more than 1,900 stores worldwide.