Hours reductions and flexibility in insurance
Published: 27 July 1997
The collective agreement recently approved in the insurance sector provides for a reduction of 10 minutes in the working week in 1997 and a further 20 minutes in 1998. Henceforth, weekly working hours will be below the 36 established by law across this sector for many years. The agreement, however, lays down two particular types of working pattern, relaxing a rather rigid traditional system to adapt it to new commercial policies:
Despite the opposition in principle expressed by the Federation of Belgian Enterprises (FEB-VBO), employers in certain sectors in Belgium have signed collective agreements in 1997 granting real reductions in working time. In the insurance sector (25,000 employees), the reduction does not involve loss of pay, but is instead coupled with measures involving flexible working hours.
The collective agreement recently approved in the insurance sector provides for a reduction of 10 minutes in the working week in 1997 and a further 20 minutes in 1998. Henceforth, weekly working hours will be below the 36 established by law across this sector for many years. The agreement, however, lays down two particular types of working pattern, relaxing a rather rigid traditional system to adapt it to new commercial policies:
"alternating working hours" (horaires alternatifs) allow for an increase or reduction in weekly working hours (by five hours up or down) or daily working hours (by two hours). Total daily hours cannot, however, exceed nine or extend past 18.00. This applies not only to computer departments, but also to departments with cyclical and/or plannable activities as well as under exceptional circumstances. Saturday work is also permitted. Workers have to be volunteers, again except under exceptional circumstances; and
"staggered working hours" (horaires décalés) are restricted to services in contact with the public. A further reduction of working time to 32 hours a week will be granted. In return, however, working hours will be permitted between 08.00 and 20.00 from Mondays to Fridays and between 8.00 and 13.00 on Saturdays. This pattern affects only a limited number of the employees in charge of contracts and claims.
The agreement does not provide for any pay increases or for compensatory employment creation measures.
These reductions in working time are linked to internal flexibility, the purpose of which is to limit the structural use of overtime through the annualisation of working hours. They also seek to prevent any increase in external flexibility through the use, for example, of subcontracting to specialised firms which fall within sectors with less favourable working conditions.
Eurofound recommends citing this publication in the following way.
Eurofound (1997), Hours reductions and flexibility in insurance, article.
