Legal diversity of working time appears to be one of the most critical issues for European HR Managers.

1. E U R O P E A T W O R K
A ViSion on #2
working time JANUARY 08
Legal diversity of working time appears to be
one of the most critical issues for European
HR managers. Good or bad news? According
to renowned experts, most of the answers
will be found well beyond statistics: within
companies… and households!
gerhard Bosch Lionel Prud’homme chris Brewster
Professor of sociology and eMea Human resources Vice-President Professor of international Hr Management,
Director of the institute at carlson Wagonlit travel university of reading and school of
for Work and skills at the Leadership, change and Hr Management
university of Duisburg-essen (Henley). Director of Henley’s
Hr centre of excellence
"Working time distribution "go out into the field and
at the household level is behave like workplace "i’m not at all sure we can
a key factor" ethnologists!" trust the statistics"
Page 2 Page 4 Page 6
Jours
facts and
figures
p. 8-9
An ADP publication
Heures

2. WOrKiNg tiMe
Gerhard Bosch
Working time distribution
at the household level is a key factor
Gerhard Bosch, Professor of Sociology and
working time, room given to
Director of the Institute for Work and Skills at the University part-time work and flexibility.
These three factors combine
of Duisburg-Essen, focuses on households and the in a number of different ways
distribution of working time between men and women and across Europe. When you look
at how things are done from
asks whether we are moving from the male breadwinner north to south and from west to
east, you find as many models
model to a more egalitarian two part-time jobs model. as there are points on the
compass, plus an intermediate
europe at work: You say that can social policies reverse model represented by Germany,
observing couples gives a better the trends? France, Belgium and the
idea of local working time practices They play a decisive role. There Netherlands.
across europe than reading are far more women working
european directives. are you being full-time in France and Belgium The Scandinavian model, which
serious? than in Germany because they I think is the most interesting,
Gerhard Bosch: Let’s take three can put their children in nursery encourages full-time work for
couples. The first in Oslo, the schools and crèches – full- everyone and distributes the
“
second in London and the third time. Many German women work between men and women.
in Madrid. We’ll ask them
all the same question: who
I don’t think we
should be the breadwinner?
“Both spouses equally”, the
Scandinavians reply. “Both
spouses”, the Brits also reply.
But the husband will earn
will harmonise
“
social practices
more than his wife. The
difference between the sexes
by decree
becomes more pronounced
Gerhard Bosch,
south of the Pyrenees and
Professor of Sociology
the Alps, where the wife and Director of the
traditionally stays at home. Institute for Work and
Skills at the University
How much does economic of Duisburg-Essen
development contribute to working
time practices? stay at home, and many who
The economic factor is decisive, choose to work give up on the Working hours are reasonable
but it interacts with institutions idea of having children; this is and employees are rarely forced
and culture. In Portugal, for undoubtedly one reason why to do overtime and go home
instance, economic constraints Germany’s birth rate is falling. late. But full-time work can
resulting from the colonial wars of be adapted to suit individual
the 1970s pushed women into the Local working time legislation circumstances. When there are
workforce. The fact that women’s still differs widely in spite of children – or elderly parents –
pay is lower in Great Britain is european directives. How do we to be taken care of, workers go
another reason why husbands make heads or tails of it all? part-time or even stop working
work more than their wives. By looking at three factors: for as long as needed. This
2

3. practice is becoming more and
more common among men as
the equal sharing of full-time
work between men and women, >>
well as women. high flexibility and extensive
gerhard Bosch is Professor
The southern model is the childcare facilities. In spite of
opposite. Being the family’s sole their economic tribulations, of sociology and since 2007,
breadwinner, the husband will these transition countries are is also Director of the institute
often do small undeclared jobs currently closest to the for Work and skills at the
on top of his already long official Scandinavian model. university of Duisburg-essen.
working hours. If his wife also He is specialized in labour
works, she will often do likewise. all these models have their market policy, working time,
There is little room for part-time limits. each of the categories you
employment policy and training.
work in the south; even less room describe allows exceptions…
for flexibility. Of course. These models He has written many books,
constitute frameworks that must articles and is often invited to
Between these two extremes, the not overshadow other specific radio broadcasts. gerhard Bosch
continental model seems to be factors. Childcare facilities and is currently working on dynamics
faced with contradictions. The school hours vary extremely of national employment models
working week is short and people widely between France and as well as european comparison
retire early, but what seems to Germany, for example. Even
of "low-skill" jobs.
have been forgotten is services though these two countries have
for families, in Germany in enough in common to belong to
particular. As for flexibility… it’s the same model, their inhabitants some of his publications…
harder to reduce one’s hours and have different mentalities. We saw
go back to full-time work later this in a recent study of women g. Bosch: "european employment
models under pressure to change", 28th
in Düsseldorf and Lyons than in working part-time in superstores. conference of the international Working
Copenhagen and Oslo! Whereas This study, conducted in Great Party on Labour Market segmentation
the Scandinavians have opted for Britain, Germany and France, iWPLMs / Lest, university of Marseilles,
aix-en-Provence, france , 04.07.2007
flexibility throughout their lives, revealed a French exception: the
the “continentals” have gambled controversial notion of only being g. Bosch, "Working time and
on work-sharing of weekly hours allowed to work part-time is the standard employment relationship"
in Decent working time: new trends,
and ended up with the highest purely French. Another example new issues, J.-Y. Boulin, M. Lallement,
unemployment rates in Europe! is Portugal, where the southern J.-c. Messenger, f. Michon, (eds.), geneva:
cultural models predominate and internat. Labour Office, p. 41-64, 2006
What should we make of the yet work is shared between men g. Bosch, H. Bielenski, a. Wagner,
British and irish models in this and women, just like in Finland! "Working time preferences in sixteen
european countries", europ. foundation
context? for the improvement of Living and
These two countries are much social europe has been set in Working conditions, Dublin, 2002
more open to women working motion. Will Brussels’ directives g. Bosch, s. Lehndorff, "Working-time
than the southern countries. But and regulations succeed in reduction and employment: experiences
men’s salaries are higher and a harmonising our working time in europe and economic policy
third of men earn even more by practices? recommendations" in Cambridge journal
of economics 25, p. 209-243, 2001
doing overtime, working up to I don’t think we will harmonise
48 or 49 hours per week. In social practices by decree. This g. Bosch, "Working time: from
redistribution to modernization"
this system, part-time work will happen slowly as people’s in Changing labour markets in Europe:
of women is the corollary of mentalities and outlooks on the role of institutions and policies,
overtime of men. life gradually converge and P. auer (ed.), 2001, p. 55-115
Lastly, of course, there are as institutions like childcare
the eastern countries that develop. The male full-time/
recently joined the EU. This female part-time combination is
“transition” model comprises a transitional form between the
both a long working week single male breadwinner model
and early retirement, which and more egalitarian modes.
was widespread following the And the two full-time jobs model
collapse of the communist could evolve towards one in
system. But from the communist which both spouses have
period this model has retained part-time jobs. eXPert
3

4. WOrKiNg tiMe
Working hours at Carlson Wagonl
The advantage of sma
C
ould it be that statutory working
hours are more important in an
ideological debate than in HRMs’
everyday experience? When Lionel arrangements
Prud’homme, EMEA HR VP at Carlson
Wagonlit Travel, decides to build a
productivity model, he aligns the ten When the wage bill represents the main cost compon
countries in which his 11,000 European do statutory working hours significantly affect profit
employees work on a “single grid”, a median
Full Time Equivalent, that makes differences centre productivity? With agencies in 22 European
vanish. So the question is no longer whether
people work longer in the UK, France or countries and nearly 1,034 "business centres" staffe
Germany, but how many transactions by 30 to 200 people, Carlson Wagonlit Travel is analy
staff members complete in a given time.
“You simply need to travel abroad to see its business model. "Performance is not driven by na
that national practices do not necessarily legislation, claims Lionel Prud’homme, EMEA HR VP,
follow the letter of the law ”, notes the
expert. “There are obvious signs, in business "but rather by best management practices.
“
districts and on the street, which contradict
the official figures. We see in particular
that French executives work longer hours
than most of their European counterparts.” Local m
So the business model of the company
act as
is built by measuring everyone using the in the n
same yardstick. The main aim is for the
service sector to catch up with industry in corpora
terms of value analysis. And to do so Lionel
Prud’homme had no hesitation in making use
of a powerful tool, HR Intelligence, extracting
HR data from payroll systems. Lionel Pru
EMEA Hum
But the analysis is economic rather than Vice-Presi
managerial. Certainly, CWT will be able Wagonlit T
to compare productivity in different countries
and see whether an Italian signs more
contracts per hour than a Spaniard or a
Latvian. CWT will be able to set up its new Like workplace ethnologists
“business centres” in the most favourable Lionel Prud’homme’s advice to CWT’s
regions, because its activity is increasingly local HRDs is to “go out into the field and
scattered and decentralised. It will even behave like workplace ethnologists ”. Team
be able to rank the performance of these efficiency on a daily basis stems more
centres, which employ 30 to 200 people in from arrangements between individuals
small teams of five or six providing services than from following rules to the letter. The
to clients. But what measures can be based mainly female workforce is not unfamiliar
on these data with regard to management? with this adaptable, inventive, empirical
“Everything except technocratic measures ”, approach, which is more conducive to
explains Lionel Prud’homme, who finding solutions than creating conflicts and
understands that statistics cannot be productive rather than complicated. “I have
corrected by issuing decrees. “The key to observed different types of people ”, notes
corporate success lies in reaching the best our ethnologist HR VP. “Women who arrive
compromise between targeting profits and at 8 o’clock, women who arrive at 8:30, and
caring for the staff.” so on until 10 o’clock. These habits stem
4

5. lit Travel
all-scale
nent, from both the age of their children and of them that time clocks should be
the sequential nature of our processes. reintroduced. “Worst of all ”, objects the
The women who arrive later take over HR VP, picking up on Chris Brewster’s idea
from the others.” without quoting it (see interview page 6).
“With time clocks your value-added no longer
ed Is this freedom to make small arrangements matters; all that’s counted is your hours.”
ysing self-regulating, without any risk of affecting Simpler and based more on trust, declarative
productivity or fairness? Of course not! Local solutions seem to be better...
ational managers keep a watchful eye on a number
of general limits and act as mediators in Hence, in the privacy of each company,
the name of corporate values. The vital issue away from the debates and statistics,
of part-time working falls within this limited working hours are the result of a certain
margin for manoeuvre. “For example, it way of doing business together. And what
would be impossible to conduct our business the workplace ethnologist discovers at
if nobody worked on Wednesdays.” The Carlson Wagonlit Travel is a culture of travel
managers
“
mediators
name of
rule is binding for everyone and guarantees
equality for all. But requests are handled on a
case-by-case basis, with always the intension
of seeking solutions to difficult situations.
“Our role as HRM is to mediate unstintingly,”
and the universally accepted rule that a
client must never be left stuck at an airport.
Of course, HR Intelligence will soon help
defining productivity standards. But the HRM
will examine managers’ profiles rather than
ate values stresses Lionel Prud’homme. “By doing so, national legislation to explain differences
we are able to show the managers what we between two business platforms.
expect of them, and strike the right balance
between our duty to sustain our economic
ud’homme, performance and fulfil our social role.”
man Resources Carlson Wagonlit Travel
ident at Carlson annualised hours and no time clock?
Travel An issue of much more general importance with over 40 million on and offline
to everyone, annualised hours, will provide transactions annually, Carlson wagonlit
a subject for discussion between social travel is the second largest travel manage-
partners. The business travel market ment company in the world and is number one
obviously goes through slack periods and in europe, the Asia-Pacific region and Latin
busy periods. So why not vary working America. Cwt is specialized in business
hours accordingly over the year? Obviously
travel management and employs more
the first obstacle is childcare, which is more
developed in some countries than in others than 22,000 people in almost
(see interview with Gerhard Bosch page 2), 150 countries. in 2007, Cwt wholly-
and families are rarely able to find a flexible owned operations and joint ventures
solution. “If I have to, I’ll set up a legal advice generated USD20.5 billion in annual sales.
hotline to accompany the annualisation of
nannies’ working hours! ” suggests Lionel
Prud’homme. He fully meant his suggestion,
but it wasn’t taken seriously…
Second obstacle, the trade unions doubt the
company’s ability to clock time fairly, hence
the surprising recommendation from some PrACtiCeS
5

6. WOrKiNg tiMe
Chris Brewster
Working time and productivity:
beyond the figures!
After having conducted extensive international HRM
evidence is that the United
research, worked closely with many organisations States is not a highly productive
country on a per hour basis, but
in all sectors, and published some twenty books because they work longer hours
and over a hundred articles, Chris Brewster now takes time than we do in Europe, they
make up for that.
to stand back. Looking beyond the figures and studies, he
are corporate cultures more
shares his realistic vision on working time with us. influential than local ones?
HR managers manage the
europe at work: the aDP Hr countries, people generally are in people within their company,
atlas shows wide differences in the office a lot longer than they and far away from the
local working times across europe. think they are. I think probably national averages! As well
are they reflected in productivity? what you’ve got is a much more as the national culture, there
Chris Brewster: I am not at all accurate recording of time in the is an organisational culture
sure we can trust the evidence north of Europe, and a rather overlay here. For example,
that we’ve got. For example, most more casual recording of time in Sweden people are very
European studies show that the in the south of Europe, which mature about their working
British working time is longer tends to emphasize the one and hours arrangements; if they
than anywhere else in Europe. underplay the other. have promised to be home at
“
“
Countries that do
longer hours are
less productive
Chris Brewster,
Professor of International
Human Resource
Management and Director
of Henley’s HR Centre of
Excellence
But anybody who has already Do the less productive countries 6 o’clock, then they make sure
worked in Southern Europe could work less? they are home at 6 o’clock.
have observed that people work Absolutely not! The countries But even in Sweden, there are
extremely long hours, very late that work longer hours are the organisations where people
into the evening. OK, they may less productive countries. So, in work extremely long hours.
take quite long lunch breaks, a sense, they are making up for Thus, HR Managers have to
but often those breaks are spent lower productivity per hour by understand the national culture
with colleagues, discussing just doing more hours. That but be much more aware of
work issues anyway. In all sorts applies, incidentally, to the their immediate organisational
of organisations in all sorts of United States as well. The culture.
6

7. What is best for a company: long
hours with low productivity or…
serving customers in a shop,
productivity is less of an issue >>
From a managerial point of than just making sure a shop
chris Brewster is Professor
view, in many ways it’s actually opens at the right time.
cheaper to get people to work But it does not really matter of international Human resource
long hours than to invest in when people do the work if they Management at the university of
new technologies. But more or are manufacturing something reading and at the school
less the same amount of work or creating an advertising of Leadership, change and
gets done in each organisation! campaign. The people at the Hr Management of Henley
A few years ago, one of my receiving end really don’t care (uK) and Director of Henley’s
doctoral students did a research when you did it.
Hr centre of excellence. He
project on productivity, with
matched groups of organisations From a Human Resource has conducted numerous
as different as engineering Management point of view, the research projects in the field of
companies and police forces. difficulty there is to make each international and comparative
Some of these organisations of those people feel that they are HrM. He also founded and
were working more efficiently being treated in a fair and is a special advisor to the
for a shorter number of hours, equitable manner. So, when I go international and ongoing
whereas others were working into companies, what I find is
cranet, conducting researches
less efficiently, but for longer rules on working time being
hours. And we saw very similar applied to people for whom now in over 40 countries.
things in France, incidentally, working hours are actually chris Brewster published
when the 35-hour week was much less important than some twenty books and over a
introduced there. productivity and what they hundred articles. currently, he
produce. Nobody gains very
is notably undertaking work on
Part-time work is a good way to much from that process. For
decrease working time. is it also a these people, it is seen as a kind convergence of Hr practices
good way to increase productivity? of dictatorial imposition on their across countries.
Employees like it, but freedom to come and go and
employers also like it. get the job done as they wish.
We know there is now some And, particularly for some of some of his publications…
fairly serious research that says the people. the issue is: “Are we c. Brewster and O. tregaskis,
"converging or diverging?
part-time workers tend to be being paid for the number of a comparative analysis of trends in
more productive. If you’re only customers we can get in or are contingent employment practice in europe
in the office for four hours we paid just to turn up and over a decade", Journal of International
Business Studies 37, (forthcoming)
a day, you spend less time sit here? ”
c. Brewster, "comparative HrM: european
having coffee and talking to views and perspectives", International
your friends and it’s much What is the main issue today for Journal of Human Resource Management,
easier to concentrate and get european Hr Managers? 18:5, May 2007, p. 769-787
on with your work. That’s Most HRMs want to standardise c. Brewster, P. sparrow and
particularly the case where jobs everything around the world g. Vernon, International Human Resource
Management, 2nd edition, 2007, London,
are repetitive. So with part-time because they don’t want to be uK, chartered institute of Personal
work, you get people who are at running everything on a kind Development, p. 230
their fast early pace. of free-for-all basis, where c. Brewster, "a european perspective on
everybody is reinventing the HrM", European Journal of International
Management, Volume 1, Number 3, 2007,
is it always useful to check the wheel every time. But they now p. 239-259
working time? also have to be sensitive to local
Productivity and working legislations, local cultures, and
time can be unrelated. You local business requirements. In
have to differentiate between all sorts of areas of International
organisations and, within Human Resource Management
organisations, you have to that’s a key issue for working
differentiate between tasks. time management in particular.
There will be some tasks
for which working time is
extremely important. If you’re eXPert
7

8. facts & figures
Actual working time: average annual hours worked per person
FI
1,666
NO
1,360
SE
1,587
DK
1,551 Annual hours
worked per person
< 1,500 hrs
IE 1,500 - 1,600
1,638 NL
UK 1,367 PL 1,600 - 1,700
1,672 1,994
DE 1,700 - 1,800
BE 1,435 1,900 - 2,000
1,534 CZ
LU 2,200 > 2,000 hrs
1,557 SK
Not available
1,791
AT
HU No country in the range
FR 1,636 1,800 - 1,900
1,535 1,994
Source: OECD 2006 – Annual hours per
person 2004, 2005 (11)
IT
1,791
PT ES
1,685 GR
1,775 2,053
Did you know?
• 2005 annual working time in: • The maximum weekly working time (including
United States: 1,809 hours overtime) of 48 hours, as set by the EU, is the
basic rule in many countries – such as Denmark,
Japan: 1,802 hours
France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg,
Canada: 1,737 hours. Norway and the UK.
8

9. facts & figures
Actual working time: usual hours worked per week, full time
Heures
Source: European Communities Eurostat 2006 – Usual hours per week 2005 (2)
Collectively agreed working time: days off and annual hours
Jours
Jours de congés
Jours fériés
Congé annuel
Temps de travail annuel contractuel
Heures
Source: European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions 2006 – Collectively agreed working time 2005 (17)
9

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