Readers' Corner - Flexible Working Hours

René Lavandier
HRSDC / Service Canada Library
Source: Workplace Bulletin, March 31, 2009

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Flexible Working Hours

Boulin, Jean-Yves, et al., editors
Decent Working Time: New Trends, New Issues
Geneva: International Labour Office, 2006
HD 7801 B68

This collection of papers from the International Symposium on Working Time (ISWT) explores the profound changes in the nature of working time and indeed the nature of employment itself in the industrialized world. The book considers how this has resulted in a growing diversification, decentralization and individualization of working hours as well as an increasing tension between business requirements and workers' needs and preferences. The first part takes a general look at the relationship between decent work and working time in industrialized countries from a number of perspectives, including individual choice, the life course, time, work and pay. The remainder of the volume is composed of national case studies grouped under three chapters: individual choices and collective options; flexibilities and conditions of work; and quality, efficiency and inequalities. Chapter 15 entitled “Who Is Working on Weekends? Determinants of Regular Weekend Work in Canada” deals with working times in the Canadian labour market. A conclusion points out directions towards "decent working time" with regard to health, work-family reconciliation, gender equality, productivity and freedom of choice.”

Heisz, Andrew, and Sébastien LaRochelle-Côté
Understanding Regional Differences in Work Hours [Electronic Resource]
Ottawa: Statistics Canada, Business and Labour Market Analysis Division, 2007
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11f0019m/11f0019m2007293-eng.pdf

This paper analyzes differences in annual working hours between Ontario and five Canadian regions using data from a 2004 survey entitled the “Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics”. The five regions discussed are the Atlantic, Quebec, Manitoba-Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia. The aim of this study was to examine how much of differences in working time between the regions can be explained by ‘observable’ differences, including differences in union status, industrial structure, job conditions and demographic characteristics. 'Observables' were relatively efficient in explaining differences in the shares of individuals working a short year and working a full-year, full-time schedule. However, they were not very helpful in explaining differences in long work hours, did not entirely explain the larger share of short-year workers in the Atlantic and in British Columbia, and did not explain the huge popularity of the 'low' full-year, full-time schedule in Quebec. These differences that remain unexplained suggest that 'unobservable' factors (those that are difficult to observe in household surveys) also contribute to regional differences in work hours.

Lee, Sangheon
Working Time Around the World: Trends in Working Hours, Laws and Policies in a Global Comparative Perspective
London, England; New York, N.Y.: Routledge; Geneva: ILO, 2007
HD 7804 I974 v.14 2007

In “Working Time around the World”, Sangheon Lee reports on issues and trends surrounding international working hours in over 50 countries, and for the first time explores the implications for working time policies in developing and transition countries. For the most part, it shows that the distribution of working hours in developing and transition countries to be highly diverse, with some individuals working very long hours, and others working short hours. It also addresses the disparity in working hours between industrialized and developing countries and suggests policy options whose primary goal is to reduce this inequality. A secondary set of goals of these policies is to: “preserve health and safety, […] [be] ‘family-friendly’, promote gender equality, enhance productivity and facilitate workers’ choice and influence over their working hours.”

Delsen, Lei, et al., editors
Operating Hours and Working Times: a Survey of Capacity Utilisation and Employment in the European Union
Heidelberg; New York, N.Y.: Physica-Verlag, c2007
HD 5164 O63

This book presents findings from a European project entitled “European Union Company Survey of Operating Hours, Working Times and Employment” (EUCOWE). The primary goal of the EUCOWE project was to collect data to study the link between working time arrangements and operating hours, and its impact on employment in six EU countries. Countries included in this project were France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom. An analysis of responses to a questionnaire sent to 17,442 establishments in various economic sectors was carried out. One of the key findings of the study was that in all countries studied between 1998 and 2003, with the exception of France, decreasing operating hours lead to decreased employment. Individual chapters of this book further examine trends in each country studied by the EUCOWE project.

Boeri, Tito, Michael Burda, and Francis Kramarz, editors
Working Hours and Job Sharing in the EU and USA: Are Europeans Lazy? Or Americans Crazy?
Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2008
HD 5164 W67

In the last 50 years the gap in labour productivity between Europe and the US has narrowed considerably with estimates in 2005 suggesting a EU-US labour productivity gap of about 5 per cent. Yet, average per capita income in the EU is still about 30% lower than in the US. This persistent gap in income per capita can be almost entirely explained by Europeans working less than Americans. This volume came out of two studies that were presented at the 5th Fondazione Rodolfo DeBenedetti conference in Portovenere, Italy in May 2006 that addressed these questions. The first study, “The Distribution of Total Work in the EU and USA”, offers theories to explain the amount of different types of non-work activities undertaken in Europe and the USA, and looks at the timing of market work across a day or a week. In the second study, “Labor Market Effects of Work-Sharing Arrangements in Europe”, the authors look at how work-sharing arrangements impact employment in Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Sweden. The study also examines the social and institutional factors that lead to decreases in the number of hours in a work week.