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Working time refers to any period during which a worker is working, at the employer's disposal and carrying out his/her activities or duties, in accordance with national laws and/or practice. Working hours vary for workers in different occupations or at different life stages, and these differences are particularly striking when gender is considered.
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Στο πλαίσιο της #BrusselsBriefings σειράς του, το Eurofound φιλοξενεί μια ανεπίσημη, διά ζώσης συζήτηση που παρουσιάζει νέα έρευνα από την ερευνητική του έκθεση: Εργασία οποτεδήποτε, οπουδήποτε: Η ποιότητα του χρόνου εργασίας στην ΕΕ.
For many years now, Eurofound has collected information on various aspects of working time and their implications for working conditions and quality of life of men and women in the EU. Eurofound’s studies on working time aim to improve understanding of how long workers work and how their time is organised and the implications of working time patterns for employment, productivity, well-being and the balance between work and private life. Data on collectively agreed working time and the role of the social partners have been published regularly, and have also been analysed from a long-term perspective. Research on men’s working time versus women’s shows that men are much more likely to work longer hours and women are more likely to spend more time doing unpaid domestic work. While most individuals, regardless of their sex, seem to be satisfied with their current working time, the majority of those expressing a preference to change their working time say they would like to reduce their hours.
Working time is a key element of working life and regulating it has been at the core of political, economic and social debates at both EU and national levels. To protect workers’ health and safety, the EU’s Working Time Directive requires all Member States to guarantee minimum standards on the duration and organisation of working time for all workers throughout the EU. This includes standards on maximum weekly working hours (set at 48 hours), minimum rest periods and breaks, annual leave, night work and shift work.
European Commission: Working Time Directive (2003/88/EC)opens in new tab
European Commission: Working Time Directive: Interpretative Communication on Directive 2003/88/EC (Corrigendum: 2023/C 143/06) opens in new tab
The most relevant changes in working time regulation across the EU in 2021 and 2022 were linked with the transposition of two European directives:
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24 October 2023
The most important changes in the regulation of working time in Europe in 2021 and 2022 were related to the transposition of two European directives: the Work–life Balance Directive and the Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions Directive. The reduction of working time and more specifically the four-day working week have been increasingly debated in many EU Member States. In 2022, the average collectively agreed working week in the EU stood at 38.1 hours. Of the sectors analysed, agreed working hours were shortest in public administration, at around 37.7 hours – still longer than the overall average – and longest in the retail sector, at 38.5 hours. The average collectively agreed paid annual leave entitlement stood at 24.3 days in the EU, and was higher in the Member States that were part of the EU prior to its 2004 enlargement (EU14), at 25.3 days, than in the other Member States, at only 20.9 days. If working collectively agreed hours, full-time workers in the EU27 would have worked, on average, 1,726 hours in 2022, with an average of 1,698 hours in the EU14 and 1,822 hours in the other Member States.
8 December 2022
This report presents Eurofound’s research on telework during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. It explores changes in the incidence of telework, working conditions experienced by employees working from home and changes to regulations addressing issues related to this working arrangement. The findings reveal a rapid escalation of telework triggered by the pandemic: in 2021, 2 out of 10 European employees were teleworking – a figure that most likely would not have been reached before 2027 had the pandemic not occurred. The health crisis unleashed the social and technological potential for flexibility in terms of working time and place. The impacts of telework on working conditions were initially difficult to determine because it was difficult to disentangle them from pandemic-induced factors, such as lockdowns and school closures. However, both the positive impacts, such as the contribution of telework to improving work–life balance, and the negative impacts, such as reduced social interaction and an increase in overtime worked, have become more evident. The rise in telework and an awareness of its implications for working conditions have prompted a renewed focus on regulatory frameworks, with new telework regulations passed in several EU Member States.
29 November 2022
The strict public health restrictions implemented by governments in 2020 to control the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly changed working life and continued to shape it over the two years that followed. Between March and November 2021, over 70,000 interviews were carried out in 36 countries by the European Working Conditions Telephone Survey (EWCTS), a high-quality probability-based survey. The aim was to provide a detailed picture of the working lives of Europeans in that exceptional time.
The report documents the working conditions of Europeans in 2021. It examines variation in job quality and identifies its positive association with well-being, health, work engagement and the financial sustainability of work. It highlights the divergences in the experiences of workers depending on workers’ own attributes and their place in the workforce. From this analysis, the report aims to derive lessons for the future, particularly in relation to the enduring marks on how we work and the implications for work organisation, the quality of work, and the interaction between work and private life.
1 September 2022
This report sets out to map and analyse legislation and collective bargaining on telework in the 27 Member States and Norway. It highlights the main cross-country differences and similarities regarding telework legislation and recent changes to these regulations. It also examines the current situation regarding collective bargaining on telework. The analysis highlights many of the drawbacks and challenges of telework, focusing on provisions relating to access to telework, flexible working time, continuous availability/connectivity, isolation, occupational and health risk prevention and the costs incurred by the employee while working remotely. With COVID-19 having been an accelerator for regulating telework both in legislation and through collective bargaining, the report sheds light on how the future of telework could be regulated at national and EU level to improve working conditions and the well-being of workers.
11 March 2021
Disclaimer - Please note that this report was updated with revised data (specifically for Bulgaria) on 23 March 2021.
This report sets out to assess the initial impact of the COVID-19 crisis on employment in Europe (up to Q2 2020), including its effects across sectors and on different categories of workers. It also looks at measures implemented by policymakers in a bid to limit the negative effects of the crisis. It first provides an overview of policy approaches adopted to mitigate the impact of the crisis on businesses, workers and citizens. The main focus is on the development, content and impact of short-time working schemes, income support measures for self-employed people, hardship funds and rent and mortgage deferrals. Finally, it explores the involvement of social partners in the development and implementation of such measures and the role of European funding in supporting these schemes.
26 February 2021
This flagship report summarises the key findings of Eurofound’s research on working conditions conducted over the programming period 2017–2020. It maps the progress achieved since 2000 in improving working conditions and examines whether all workers have benefited equally from positive change. It highlights which groups are the most at risk of experiencing poor working conditions and being left behind. Given the changes in the world of work, emerging challenges for good job quality are identified. The report also provides evidence for measures that could lead to the further improvement of work and the achievement of fair working conditions for all in the EU. The analysis shows that, overall, job quality in the EU is improving, if slowly. Not all workers are benefiting to the same extent, however. Furthermore, gender, age and contractual status have a significant bearing on a person’s working conditions. And while digitalisation helps to address some job quality issues, it also creates new challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated trends, reinforcing concerns and highlighting the importance of achieving job quality for all.
Οι ερευνητές του Eurofound παρέχουν εξειδικευμένες γνώσεις και μπορείτε να επικοινωνήσετε μαζί τους για ερωτήσεις ή αιτήματα των μέσων ενημέρωσης.
Oscar Vargas Llave is a senior research manager in the Working Life unit at Eurofound and manages projects on changes in the world of work and the impact on working conditions and related policies: organisation of working time, remote work, the right to disconnect, health and well-being and ageing. Before joining Eurofound in December 2009, he worked as project coordinator in the field of health and safety and was responsible for the Professional Card Scheme for the Construction Sector in Spain at the non-profit Fundación Laboral de la Construcción in Madrid. He has a background in industrial sociology (Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca), and also holds a Diploma in Social Science Research Methods from the University of Cardiff and a Master’s degree in Health and Safety from the Autonomous University of Madrid.
Ο Jorge Cabrita είναι ανώτερος διευθυντής έρευνας στη μονάδα Working Life. Είναι υπεύθυνος για τη διαμόρφωση, τον συντονισμό και τη διαχείριση της πανευρωπαϊκής έρευνας και την προώθηση της διάδοσης των ευρημάτων στους τομείς των συνθηκών εργασίας και των εργασιακών σχέσεων. Οι κύριοι ερευνητικοί τομείς ενδιαφέροντός του περιλαμβάνουν τις συνθήκες εργασίας και την ποιότητα της εργασίας, τον χρόνο εργασίας και την ισορροπία μεταξύ επαγγελματικής και προσωπικής ζωής, την υγεία και την ευημερία των εργαζομένων, την ισότητα των φύλων και τις κοινωνικοοικονομικές επιπτώσεις της μετάβασης σε μια κλιματικά ουδέτερη οικονομία. Επί του παρόντος ηγείται της έρευνας για τις εξελίξεις του χρόνου εργασίας και για τον κοινωνικό διάλογο και τις συλλογικές διαπραγματεύσεις κατά τη διάρκεια της πανδημίας COVID-19. Προηγουμένως, εργάστηκε ως ερευνητής στο Κέντρο Μελετών Κοινωνικής Παρέμβασης και στο Ερευνητικό Κέντρο για την Πορτογαλική Οικονομία της Σχολής Οικονομικών Επιστημών της Λισαβόνας και ως εκπαιδευτής και σύμβουλος στους τομείς της στρατηγικής διαχείρισης, της οργανωτικής επικοινωνίας, της ηγεσίας και της δημιουργίας ομάδας. Είναι κάτοχος πτυχίου Οικονομικών Επιστημών και μεταπτυχιακού τίτλου στα Κοινωνικο-Οργανωτικά Συστήματα Οικονομικής Δραστηριότητας από τη Σχολή Οικονομικών Επιστημών της Λισαβόνας.
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