Incentives: Sew & Ski

Year after year, in northern France’s flat and foggy coal-mining town of Harnes, the girls of the Duhamel textile factory toiled away sewing trousers and parkas. One day in July 1966, as Léon Duhamel was wishing some of his 500 employees bonnes vacances, he was stunned to find that practically all spent even their vacations in dreary Harnes. To remedy that, he devised a scheme of “snow and sew” and this winter put it to the test.

Since last December, the sewing machines of Duhamel girls hum away in a handsome glass-and-pine chalet at 4,921-ft. altitude in the mountain village of St. Sorlin d’Arves, near Grenoble of winter Olympics fame. To this small ski resort come groups of 40 workers from Harnes for four weeks of work and ski; they sew from 7 to 10 and from 4 to 6, get out on the slopes in between.

Work for the Kitty. Textileman Duhamel, 56, who sold noodles before setting up his enterprise with $300 capital in 1935, is no philanthropist. His company’s yearly sales of $5,000,000 are not going to suffer for “snow and sew.” Before he built the chalet for $200,000, Duhamel made sure his workers agreed to his plan. Though there are no time clocks to punch in St. Sorlin, each group of 40 is expected to produce 10,800 toddlers’ shorts during its four-week period.

Back in Harnes, all employees are putting in half an hour work per day without pay for the rest of the year. The proceeds from this go into a kitty to pay for transportation, food and ski lessons. The French government, too, has pitched in. When Duhamel explained the project, Finance Minister Michel Debré agreed to waive about $9,000 in company taxes and social security payments a year. Thus, with a snow-and-sew fund of $60,000, St. Sorlin is expected to pay its own way.

Joy in Their Eyes. “We will need a year to judge whether the scheme pays off,” admits Duhamel. If he had any doubts, the 40 young employees (the oldest is 24) who packed their gear to return to Harnes last week had none at all. Some were already planning next winter’s work and games. “I’d like to spend the whole winter skiing and working in this chalet,” says 16-year-old Annabella Zozzolo. “All my buddies want to come to work for Duhamel’s. I can understand why,” said one of the group’s four young men. Duhamel himself, who eats and skis with his employees when in St. Sorlin, claims that those who have had their month’s stay appear transformed by the experience. “There is joy in their eyes,” he says. “I think work has taken on a new dimension for them.”