NURSE DENIED CITIZENSHIP FOR ‘DOING TOO MUCH’

A migrant nurse has been turned down for French citizenship because she is working too hard. The woman, whose name and nationality have not been made public, holds three jobs and works an average 59-hour week — in breach of the statutory 35-hour rule.

Rejecting her application, officials in the prefecture of Val-de-marne, near Paris, said the amount of overtime she was doing placed her “in violation of regulations on working time in France.”

The 35-hour rule introduced under a Socialist government in 2000 gave France one of the world’s shortest work weeks, but it has since been relaxed and employees may be permitted to work up to 48 hours a week including overtime. Officials say they were “postponing” her application for two years.