Flexible Working Time

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Flexible Working Time

• EMB-Collective Bargaining- Summer School 2007
• Rudolf Welzmüller IGM Germany

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What is flexibility  ?
Types of flexibility
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Types of flexibility - used by big companies in
five European countries
Source Schief, S., in Lehndorff, St., Das
Politische in der Arbeitszeitpolitik, Berlin 2006
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IGM-Agreements on working time and options

• Standard working time 35 hours (West-Germany)
  38 hours (East)
• 13 /18 can work 40 hours (paid) (by change
  of individual contract)
• Shift work (night week-end) 36.7 in shift
  work (among them 13.4 night shift)
• Overtime (10 per week 20 per month exception
  in certain cases but always co-determination of
  works council !)
• Some agreements on working time accounts (see
  separate charts)
• Opening clause temporary extension up to 40
  hours in critical economic situations of a
  company (restructuring) must be negotiated and
  agreed upon by IGM

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IGM-Agreements on working time and options

• In those plants, where the share of highly
  skilled workers (exactly defined in the
  agreement ) exceeds 50 of the workforce, up to
  50 of the workforce can work 40 hours.
•  In case of difficulties with the recruitment of
  new employees, employer are allowed to bridge the
  time (up to six months) by increasing working
  hours - but enterprises with a working time
  account system must first use the flexibility of
  that time account.
• To avoid redundancy/dismissal working time can
  be reduced to 30 hours/33 hours weekly
  (West/East) (according special agreement on
  safeguarding employment)
• IGM and works council must agree in any concrete
  case

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Simple form of flexible working timeVarying
daily work individually (Flex-time -Gleitzeit)

• Possibility to vary the start and the end of
  daily work, and
• - possibility to use accumulated hours for days
  off (or hours off)
• - days off must be taken within a certain
  reference period (month quarter of a year...)
• Condition
• - maximum daily working time
• - maximum amount of credit hours (e.g. 30 hours)
• - a core period of the day when employees are
  expected to be at work
• Affects 1/3rd of the workforce (whole economy)
  metal industry 2002, 55 had working time
  accounts (Grüne Reihe 12)

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EU Almost 50 Percent of all companies do have at
least flex-time systems
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Agreement on Working Time AccountValid for the
region of South-West Germany (400.000 members)

• The new collective agreement gives permission to
  the works councils, to conclude company
  agreements on two types of working time
  accounts 
• - flexible working time account
• - long term working time account.

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Flexible working time account (Baden-Württemberg)
(collective)

• The flexible working time account is supposed to
  even out the fluctuations of capacity utilisation
  due to product and market cycles. The account is
  allowed to show a positive or negative balance
  (credit hours/debt hours).
• Can only be used in well defined cases in order
  to tackle problems of underutilization of
  capacity or of peak utilization, e.g., extra
  shift work in an automobile company works
  councils and management have to agree on a
  company agreement. Than they can apply the
  flexible working time account and decide, that
  all the hours worked above the 35 hours go into
  this account (for each worker included in the
  extra-shift).

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Flexible working time account (Baden-Württemberg)

• This company agreements must define a concrete
  upper/lower limit for the positive/negative
  balance. The company agreement must also contain
  rules which regulate the way how to offset the
  accumulated credit or debt hours .
• This company agreement about flexible working
  time accounts refers always to a whole group of
  employees (plant department special shift etc.)
  not to individuals.
• The respective amount of credit hours accumulated
  on this account has to be used for the purpose of
  time off in periods of low production.
  Individuals can not say I want to transfer those
  hours onto my long time account or I want to
  have a compensation in cash.
• In case of ending of labour contract only time
  off for credit hours!

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Long term working time account(individually)

• The long term working time account is supposed to
  serve the personal needs and preferences. Each
  employee who owns such a long term time account
  has a right to take advantage of the account for
• - shortening working life (early retirement)
• - time off for individual qualification/training.
• - in case of death or unforeseen ending of labour
  contract reimbursement
• The employer has no right to dispose of the
  account or to determine the way the employee
  uses his account balance.

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Long term working time account

• The annual inflow to the long term account is
  limited Employees are allowed to put till 152
  hours into their long term account annually.
• Can be fed with hours taken (a) from the regular
  working time an employee can decide to put 1
  hour out of the 35 hours onto the long time
  account (b) from the individual overtime work. 
• But it is not allowed, in case of exceeding the
  ceiling of the flexible working time account (see
  above), to transfer hours from the flexible
  individual working time account to the long term
  working time account!
• Insurance for case of insolvency of the company

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Agreement Volkswagen (VW) on flexible working
time (2004)

• Flexible working hours new working time
  arrangement which allows a time corridor of
  plus/minus 400 hours (on basis of a working time
  account system).
• New possibility for accumulating working time in
  order to use it for early retirement (saving
  working time till the end of the career) each
  employee is allowed to put up to 66 hours into a
  long-term working time account each year.

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Flexi- and long-term working time accounts
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Flexible labour contracts...

• Fixed-term contracts (2006) Germany 14.5 of
  all employees (EU 25 14.9 )
• Temporary agency work
• - Generally in Germany lower (1.8 of the
  whole labour force) than in UK, France, NL, B.
• - German metal industry about 5 of the
  employees.
• 87 of the companies of car industries
  (incl. Suppliers) use it to a certain extent.
• Part Time (but mostly permanent contract).
  Germany 25,8 , EU 25 18,8 (2006)
  non-voluntary Germany 22.3 (of all part timer)

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To sum up ...

• Agreements on flexible working time have to do
  with strengthening the internal flexibility (in
  contrast to external f.) and aim at ...
• Safeguarding employment
• Widening the options of employees to meet the
  wishes for better work life balance
• Next steps will relate to Leave schemes (care
  leave career breaks) retirement schemes
  (flexible retirement/phased retirement)
• Must be embedded into a policy of good work