A report published on Tuesday 7 October by the European services workers union UNI Europa reveals that “millions of workers across Europe’s service sectors face mounting risks from unfair and unsustainable working time arrangements”.
It shows “that collective bargaining can address insecure hours, involuntary part-time work and the rising pressures of an ‘always-on’ culture”. While average working hours have gradually fallen to 37 hours a week, the trend is uneven. The care, retail and property sectors are characterised by involuntary part-time contracts and precarious incomes, while ICT employees are often faced with excessive overtime and struggle to disconnect.
In the cleaning and retail sectors, zero-hour and on-call contracts leave workers “without predictable income or time for family life”. “Staff shortages and employer cost-cutting are pushing workers to exhaustion”.
Link: https://aeur.eu/f/it3 (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)