New figures from a large-scale survey of how French workers perceive their own working conditions were published at the start of January 2007. This fresh information extracted from the Sumer survey done in 2002-2003 among 50 000 workers relates to the physical and mental strains of work.

The survey coordinator - DARES, the French Labour Ministry’s research and statistics agency - reports “a let-up in the time-pressure of work” in France. French workers’ exposure to physical strain at work has not increased since the last survey, done in 1998. But the one big blot on this overall encouraging landscape is that manual workers’ conditions are getting steadily worse.

The figures suggest that industrial constraints are worsening for manual workers. Despite the growing service-orientation of the economy, assembly line work has not yet been consigned to history: the proportion of assembly-line workers in France now stands at 11% - 1% more than in 1998. Over 25% of manual workers also claim that their work pace is dictated by the operating rate of a machine or automated product handling, rising to over 50% among unskilled manual workers, and accounting for over half a million workers in all.

The DARES figures also give the lie to the idea that “back-breaking work” is a thing of the past. For example, 50% of skilled workers and 54% of unskilled workers experience four or more physical demands of work. “Carrying heavy loads”, “painful or tiring movements” and “exposure to jolts or vibrations” are rising steadily among manual workers.

This category of worker also more often has to work to tight deadlines to do their job - 40% of manual workers against 25% of non-manual employees. Manual workers are also more subjected to a work pace constrained either by direct control by the boss or computer control.

Finally, the French survey singles out a continuing rise in the share of workers who do nights or work non-standard hours, particularly among women workers, 10% of whom worked nights in 2005, against 6% in 1998.

• Read the full summary of the survey (in French)