• Areas of Expertise:
  • Business and society
  • Diversity
  • Employment status
  • Gender
  • Health
  • Human capital
  • Industrial change
  • Industrial relations
  • Labour market
  • Participation at work
  • Population and society
  • Quality of life
  • Quality of work
  • Social cohesion
  • Social protection
  • Time
  • Work-life balance
  • Work organisation

European survey on working time and work-life balance

The Foundation has undertaken a systematic survey on working time and work-life balance policies in establishments in the former EU15 Member States and six of the new: Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Poland and Slovenia.

Survey results

• Working time flexibility in European companies (2007)
• Extended and unusual working hours in European companies (2007)
• Part-time work in European companies (2007)
• Parental leave in European companies (2007)
• Early and phased retirement in European companies (2007)
• Working time and work-life balance in European companies (overview report, 2006)
• First results of the survey

Objectives of the survey

• The survey aims to complement existing Foundation data and research on working time which is based primarily on surveys of individual workers and on literature reviews and case studies.
• It is designed to find out whether, why and how companies make use of the broad variety of working time arrangements (e.g. full- and part-time work, overtime, flexi-time, shift work, phased and early retirement and childcare leave arrangements).
• It includes all companies with 10 or more employees across all sectors of activity, including the public sector.

Survey design

Phase 1

• Telephone interviews were carried out in more than 16,000 workplaces in the EU15 Member States
• The establishments interviewed were randomly selected
• Fieldwork started in the second half of September 2004 and was coordinated by TNS Infratest Sozialforschung.

Phase 2

After completion of the first phase, the survey has been extended to six of the new EU Member States: Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Poland and Slovenia.

• Telephone interviews were carried out in more than 4,000 workplaces
• Phase 2 fieldwork, coordinated by TNS Infratest Sozialforschung, started in May 2005
• Interviews were conducted by the following national institutes:
  

Cyprus	Synovate, Nicosia
Czech Republic	TNS AISA, Prague
Hungary	TNS Hungary, Budapest
Latvia	TNS Baltic Data House, Riga
Poland	TNS OBOP, Warsaw
Slovenia	RM Plus, Maribor

• The quality of the survey depends on the cooperation of the companies and organisations selected. Therefore, the Foundation thanks all the establishments who participated in this survey.
• For any further information on the survey, please contact Camilla Galli da Bino, information liaison officer.

See also:

• Previous research on working time
• EIRO Working time developments 2006