Brussels, 27/10/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 26 October, the European Commission published an expert group report on flexible working and gender equality. The main finding is that employers and workers benefit from flexible working time arrangements.
This, the third in series of comparative reports on work-life balance issues, provides a comprehensive overview of current practices in the 27 EU and the EEA-EFTA countries (Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Switzerland). It focuses on internal flexibility (within companies and organisations), both in terms of length of working time (for instance, part-time) and organisation of working time (for instance, flexitime arrangements or staggered hours and flexibility in starting and ending the work day).
The report's main conclusions are:
1. There are still very large differences between the member states regarding flexibility of working time: - flexibility in length of working time is more widespread in northern and western Europe, whereas in Hungary, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Estonia, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Slovenia and Romania the traditional 40 hour working week dominates; - Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Finland and Norway score relatively highly in flexible organisation, with just over half of all employees using some kind of flexibility in their working hours;
2. Increased flexibility in working time is not always good for gender equality: - more individualised working hours have a positive effect on female employment rates and can help employees to balance work and personal life, but part-time work (dominated by women) is still concentrated in low-paid sectors with low career and training opportunities in most countries; - organisational culture also plays an important role: as long as flexibility is considered a “female” way of organising work-time, flexible working time schedules are more likely to confirm gender differences than to change them;
3. Recent policy developments show that working time flexibility is on the political agenda in several countries, though the specific topics may vary: - some countries (such as the Czech Republic and Lithuania) focus on flexibility as an instrument to increase the employment rate (both in individuals and in hours); - especially in the Nordic countries, involuntary part-time work is an important issue, leading to policy measures that try to create a new balance between flexibility and security; - in Finland, Germany and Luxembourg, time banking and annualised hours are also part of the current policy agenda; - in some countries, for example, Poland and Portugal, flexible working time schedules are linked to the debate on reducing the extent of overtime.
The report notes that the current financial and economic crisis has had a clear effect, and flexibility is now seen as an important policy instrument to help employers adjust to changing economic circumstances. In the current debate, however, the gender dimension does not figure prominently.
The European Commission points out that, in March 2010, it launched the first step towards a review of existing EU rules on working time, with a first stage consultation of European social partners. It says it will shortly publish an expert report on the social and economic impact of working time rules in the context of this review. (G.B./transl.rt)