Social Europe

politics, economy and employment & labour

  • Themes
    • European digital sphere
    • Recovery and resilience
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Dossiers
    • Occasional Papers
    • Research Essays
    • Brexit Paper Series
  • Podcast
  • Videos
  • Newsletter

Rethinking Working Time In Europe

Jorge Cabrita 1st November 2017

Jorge Cabrita

Jorge Cabrita

The results of recent Eurofound research on working time patterns in the EU constitute a strong plea for working time policies that clearly acknowledge the life course perspective. This means that working time must not only be thought and organised in daily, weekly, monthly and/or yearly terms but also take into full consideration the different stages of our lives. Here are three important reasons why:

1: to support workers when they need it the most

EWCS data show that the differences between preferred and actual working time are the largest during the parenting phase and towards the end of working life. At the same time, the lack of work–life balance during these two periods is most pronounced. This clearly means that the needs of workers vary over their life course and that the tools available to them to achieve a good balance between paid work and personal and family responsibilities may well be inadequate. Parents with pre-school children, for example, are more likely to report a poor work–life balance, not having enough time for their family and family responsibilities interacting negatively with their job.

In the EU28, women continue to spend more time in work activities than men: in 2015, on average, women spent 58 hours in paid work (main and second job, where applicable), commuting and unpaid work (including domestic work, care for children or elderly members of the household, etc.), against only 52.5 hours declared by men. At the same time, the difference between actual and preferred working hours is larger for men, in particular if they are in the parenting phase of their lives (see table).

Actual and preferred weekly working time (hours per week), EU28, 2015

  Men Women
Actual Preferred Actual Preferred
Cohabiting couples with children under 7 years old 39.8 37.7 31.7 30.9
Cohabiting couples with children 7 to 12 years old 41.3 38.1 31.3 30.7
Cohabiting couples with children 13 to 18 years old 40.4 37.9 32.3 31.8
Source: EWCS 2015

Working time policies that acknowledge these variations over a life course provide more support and flexibility for those periods where tensions in work-life balance are acutest.

Our job is keeping you informed!


Subscribe to our free newsletter and stay up to date with the latest Social Europe content.


We will never send you spam and you can unsubscribe anytime.

Thank you!

Please check your inbox and click on the link in the confirmation email to complete your newsletter subscription.

.

2: To contribute to cutting the large disparities between Member States

Working time patterns differ considerably across the EU. Workers from the UK and Ireland, as well as Continental and Southern clusters, have a poorer work-life balance. Conversely, workers from Northern countries are less likely to report that their family commitments negatively affect their job. And this is not by chance. In these countries, the time-off/holiday leave systems are flexible and relatively generous while reversible time options across the life course are more common, giving workers the possibility to better adapt their working time to various personal, family and social commitments.

Working time policies that acknowledge the differences in extent, scope and take-up of universal and individualised rights in the EU Member States and that promote them where they are scarcer or more limited would reduce these across the board. Universal and individualised rights such as maximum weekly hours, minimum rest periods, leave, family related leave, protection in shift and night work, for example, should be complemented by collective agreements – at national, sectoral, branch or company level. These agreements can take account of the specificities of the sector or company while adapting working time duration and organisation according to individuals’ changing needs and preferences across the various life stages.

3: Working hours and working time arrangements are key for sustainable work

Good health, satisfaction with working conditions and flexible work–life balance arrangements are strong predictors of a decent and long working life. More important, perhaps, the EWCS data show that having greater job autonomy and ability to determine one’s working hours and work content are important factors influencing individuals’ willingness to stay longer in the workforce.

Working time policies that a) foster patterns of work that prevent negative impacts on workers’ health and well-being (for example, by prohibiting long working hours for extensive periods of time), and, b) promote greater job and working time autonomy and better work–life balance will contribute to make work more sustainable.

It’s much more than “flexible working time”

Those are three strong arguments for designing and implementing working time policies that take into consideration that the tensions between time for paid work and for personal, family and social commitments vary across the life course. For this to happen, it is crucial that all relevant actors and institutions – including employers and workers’ representatives, and civil society at large – are actively involved and consulted.


We need your support


Social Europe is an independent publisher and we believe in freely available content. For this model to be sustainable, however, we depend on the solidarity of our readers. Become a Social Europe member for less than 5 Euro per month and help us produce more articles, podcasts and videos. Thank you very much for your support!

Become a Social Europe Member

However, very well designed and comprehensive working time policies by themselves are not enough. The required supporting infrastructure – transport systems and child/elderly care services, for example – must be in place and accessible and affordable for all. Only then can working time policies have the desired outcomes for workers, organisations and society in general. Rethinking how we organise our working time requires much more than just implementing “flexible working time”.

The report “Working time patterns for sustainable work” is now available from Eurofound.

Click here for more about the European Working Conditions Survey.

This column is sponsored by Eurofound.
Jorge Cabrita

Jorge Cabrita is Research manager in Eurofound’s Working Life Unit, responsible for formulating, coordinating and managing European-wide studies, surveys, publications and other Eurofound projects in the thematic areas of working conditions and industrial relations.

Home ・ Politics ・ Rethinking Working Time In Europe

Most Popular Posts

schools,Sweden,Swedish,voucher,choice Sweden’s schools: Milton Friedman’s wet dreamLisa Pelling
world order,Russia,China,Europe,United States,US The coming world orderMarc Saxer
south working,remote work ‘South working’: the future of remote workAntonio Aloisi and Luisa Corazza
Russia,Putin,assets,oligarchs Seizing the assets of Russian oligarchsBranko Milanovic
Russians,support,war,Ukraine Why do Russians support the war against Ukraine?Svetlana Erpyleva

Most Recent Posts

Gazprom,Putin,Nordstream,Putin,Schröder How the public loses out when politicians cash inKatharina Pistor
defence,europe,spending Ukraine and Europe’s defence spendingValerio Alfonso Bruno and Adriano Cozzolino
North Atlantic Treaty Organization,NATO,Ukraine The Ukraine war and NATO’s renewed credibilityPaul Rogers
transnational list,European constituency,European elections,European public sphere A European constituency for a European public sphereDomènec Ruiz Devesa
hydrogen,gas,LNG,REPowerEU EU hydrogen targets—a neo-colonial resource grabPascoe Sabido and Chloé Mikolajczak

Other Social Europe Publications

The transatlantic relationship
Women and the coronavirus crisis
RE No. 12: Why No Economic Democracy in Sweden?
US election 2020
Corporate taxation in a globalised era

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

EU Care Atlas: a new interactive data map showing how care deficits affect the gender earnings gap in the EU

Browse through the EU Care Atlas, a new interactive data map to help uncover what the statistics are often hiding: how care deficits directly feed into the gender earnings gap.

While attention is often focused on the gender pay gap (13%), the EU Care Atlas brings to light the more worrisome and complex picture of women’s economic inequalities. The pay gap is just one of three main elements that explain the overall earnings gap, which is estimated at 36.7%. The EU Care Atlas illustrates the urgent need to look beyond the pay gap and understand the interplay between the overall earnings gap and care imbalances.


BROWSE THROUGH THE MAP

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

Towards a new Minimum Wage Policy in Germany and Europe: WSI minimum wage report 2022

The past year has seen a much higher political profile for the issue of minimum wages, not only in Germany, which has seen fresh initiatives to tackle low pay, but also in those many other countries in Europe that have embarked on substantial and sustained increases in statutory minimum wages. One key benchmark in determining what should count as an adequate minimum wage is the threshold of 60 per cent of the median wage, a ratio that has also played a role in the European Commission's proposals for an EU-level policy on minimum wages. This year's WSI Minimum Wage Report highlights the feasibility of achieving minimum wages that meet this criterion, given the political will. And with an increase to 12 euro per hour planned for autumn 2022, Germany might now find itself promoted from laggard to minimum-wage trailblazer.


FREE DOWNLOAD

ETUI advertisement

Bilan social / Social policy in the EU: state of play 2021 and perspectives

The new edition of the Bilan social 2021, co-produced by the European Social Observatory (OSE) and the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), reveals that while EU social policy-making took a blow in 2020, 2021 was guided by the re-emerging social aspirations of the European Commission and the launch of several important initiatives. Against the background of Covid-19, climate change and the debate on the future of Europe, the French presidency of the Council of the EU and the von der Leyen commission must now be closely scrutinised by EU citizens and social stakeholders.


AVAILABLE HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Living and working in Europe 2021

The Covid-19 pandemic continued to be a defining force in 2021, and Eurofound continued its work of examining and recording the many and diverse impacts across the EU. Living and working in Europe 2021 provides a snapshot of the changes to employment, work and living conditions in Europe. It also summarises the agency’s findings on issues such as gender equality in employment, wealth inequality and labour shortages. These will have a significant bearing on recovery from the pandemic, resilience in the face of the war in Ukraine and a successful transition to a green and digital future.


AVAILABLE HERE

About Social Europe

Our Mission

Article Submission

Membership

Advertisements

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641

Social Europe Archives

Search Social Europe

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Follow us on social media

Follow us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Follow us on LinkedIn

Follow us on YouTube