l’Ile des heures supplémentaires

I heard on NPR this morning that four contestants on France's version of Temptation Island (a reality show about, as near as I can tell, people having sex (not to be confused with all the other reality shows about the same subject - this one happens on an island(not to be confused with all the other reality shows about people having sex that happen on an... you get the idea))) are to be paid overtime for their, uh, labour. The times has all the details, which boils down to:

With France applying a 35-hour working week, Mr Brocheton, Miss Adamiak and Mr Laizé were awarded €8,176 each in overtime when the court said that they had effectively worked 24 hours a day during the entire 12-day period.

In addition, they each received €817 for not being given a holiday, €500 for unfair dismissal, €1,500 for the wrongful termination of their contracts and €16,000 in damages for being employed illegally.

I especially like the part about not being given a holiday....

OIF!!!

A 35-hour work week applied to a reality show?  I love it...

The, rather flimsy, concept of temptation island in France is that they take a couple and they put one member of the couple on a deserted island where s/he is to be tempted (get it?) by members of the opposite sex while the other member of the couple watches on (supposedly) hidden cameras.  I've never seen an episode but I can understand the premise from the TV guide without a lot of intellectual deduction.

I simply love the idea of trying to apply French labour laws to the concept of a reality show: illegal termination of contract when they get voted off the show as defined by the very defintion of the show; overtime as they are filmed 24/7 as defined by the show concept itself; illegal employment as they can not apply a "normal" CDI or CDD to this type of a situation... it's just sooooooo French bureaucracy...

Thanks!

 

The French version:

http://tinyurl.com/28mj6u