Gradually reduce the maximum weekly working day until it reaches 32 hours in 2032, establish a single interruption in split days that does not exceed one hour, extend the mandatory weekly rest to two days and ensure that those who work in rotating shifts cannot work more than five nights in a row are some of the measures that the experts from the Time Use Initiative (TUI) want the European Union to regulate as a community directive to ensure that all Europeans advance in a homogeneous and coordinated manner towards a more balanced organization of working time.
This is reflected in the document of public policy recommendations that international and local experts in the organization of work time have presented and debated today within the framework of Time Use Week 2023, which is being held these days in Barcelona.
"The proposal is the result of the reflection that the Time Use Initiative has been carrying out for some time, a non-profit organization that wants to put the right to time on the political agenda and that has already prepared a report for the Ministry of Labor with more of 100 proposals to improve the organization of time in Spain that should serve as a basis for the future Spanish law on the use of time,” explains Ariadna Güell, co-coordinator of the TUI.
But since many of the working conditions are already discussed and regulated at community level (for example, the right to digital disconnection) and the objective is that all Europeans can enjoy a more balanced and equal working time framework, from The TUI have decided to transfer some of these specific measures to the competent bodies of the European Union so that they adapt the corresponding directives and thus force the governments of the different countries to advance in this field and thus offer a harmonized framework of rights and duties for all European workers and companies, in any sector.
The first of the measures proposed in the document presented by Mari Luz Vega, former ILO official and one of the authors of the document, is the reduction of working time. To this end, it is proposed to gradually reduce the maximum working day. The first step would be to reduce it to 37.5 hours for all business sectors in 2026 and, from there, reduce it to reach 32 hours per week in 2032. “This would allow us to homogenize what is already a reality in the average number of hours worked in Europe, although in the labor legislation of many member states the working day is still 38 and 40 hours,” the experts indicate.
Another of the measures that is intended to be implemented at European level is aimed at avoiding unpredictable and improvised working hours, and at giving workers some security about their work schedule. In this sense, companies are required to inform their employees about the minimum number of guaranteed work hours, the hours and days in which the company can require an employee to work, the regulation of overtime, the time with which the worker will be notified when there are changes in their work schedule... so that the employee is clearer about their work time and can plan their life better even if their workday is variable.
The TUI experts - who have prepared their document based on contributions from labor law specialists Anna Ginés (Esade), Raquel Serrano (UB) and the aforementioned Mari Luz Vega (UCM) - believe that the European authorities should also limit interruptions and breaks during work days so that work does not end up colonizing people's entire daily agenda. In this sense, they propose that, in general, a single interruption of split days be established with a maximum duration of one hour, a rule that would entail important changes in the organization of work in Spain, since in many jobs the break from The food is very large and that means that you finish work very late.
The document debated today by experts such as Jorge Cabrita (Eurofound), Marine Humblet (working conditions department of the ILO), Eva Rimbau (professor of Economics and Business Studies at the UOC), Carmen Castro (equality and transformation policy consultant ) and Jon Bernat (Professor of Labor Relations at the EHU) advises extending the weekly rest to two days for all sectors of activity. The objective is to put an end to the dual labor market that now exists, in which, while some workers already enjoy two days off a week, the general rule in the legislation of many countries is maintained with the premise of a day off and uninterrupted medium.
Those who work shifts or at night are more at risk of health problems. For this reason, the TUI asks the EU to change Community legislation so that employees with rotating shifts cannot work more than five consecutive nights and that those over 50 who work at night have the right to request a change to a job. day work that is available in the company.
The document presented at Time Use Week also proposes that European authorities expand and make the options for reducing working hours more flexible. For example, it is proposed that they may be discontinuous throughout the week, month or year, or that a worker may reduce his or her working hours to care for people with whom he or she lives, even if there is no family relationship between them.
And beyond this general legal framework, the experts gathered at Time Use Week 2023 consider it appropriate for companies with 50 or more workers to develop and implement their own plan to improve the organization of working time.
All these measures, explained the experts gathered in Barcelona, will help to better balance and organize the time that people dedicate to their work, thereby improving their levels of well-being and their physical and mental health, in addition to facilitating work-life balance and reducing poverty. of time that an increasingly large number of people suffer from.
But they also ensure that better organizing work days and giving more transparency to work schedules will also contribute to improving the competitiveness of companies, reducing absenteeism and staff turnover, and will facilitate energy savings and advances in sustainability.
Time Use Week, which each year brings together leaders and experts from around the world in Barcelona to discuss issues related to time and its impact on society, is co-organized by the Generalitat of Catalonia, Barcelona City Council, the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, the Barcelona Provincial Council and the Time Use Initiative.
