Irish workers are putting in one of the shortest working weeks in Europe and are now on a par with the traditionally work-shy French, according to a new survey on working hours in the EU.

The Irish are now working an average 37.5 hours a week, the same as the French and just a quarter of an hour more than the Finns who, at 37.25 hours, have the shortest working week across the 27 EU countries surveyed.

But the shorter week is not of Irish workers' choosing and is down to the "use of short-time working as a means of responding to falling demand during the recession", according to the survey conducted by the Dublin-based Eurofound organisation.

It has been a feature of the recession in Ireland that private sector employers have tended to cut hours of work, rather than pay, to get over the recession.

Of the three main methods employers use to combat the recession, job cuts are top followed by a reduction in hours with pay cuts coming in last, according to a CSO report on wages published earlier this year.

The benefit to workers experiencing a cut in hours is that they retain their rate of pay while hours can be increased again when conditions improve.

The Romanians work the longest week at over 41 hours, according to the Eurofound survey, followed by the Maltese (40.75 hours) and then our neighbours and main competitors, the British, who work 41.5 hours a week. The average working week across the 27 EU countries is 39.3 hours.

But the Irish lose out on annual leave and public holidays, which are longer and more numerous on the continent, according to Eurofound.

Average agreed annual leave in Ireland is 24 days, just one day better off than the troubled Greeks at 23, with workers in Slovakia, Romania, Cyprus and Estonia entitled to just over 20 days' leave.

Workers in Denmark and Germany enjoy the longest holidays, with an average of 30 days, followed by Italy (28 days), Netherlands (26 days) and then Austria, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Norway and the UK, all on 25 days' leave.

Irish workers also lose out on public holidays, with nine in the year. Only the Netherlands (six), the UK (eight) and Hungary (eight days) are more sparing with public holidays.