GENEVA (ILO News) - Across the industrialized world, working hours are becoming increasingly unpredictable, creating tensions between workers and employers and putting "work-life" balance at risk, according to a new study to be launched here Wednesday at the annual labour Conference of the International Labour Organization (ILO).
While working hours are increasing in some industrialized countries and shrinking in others, today's world of work is characterized by the "atypical and unpredictable" nature of working time, and the increase in weekend and night work, says "Decent working time: New trends, new issues" ( Note 1).
"The growing tendency to more atypical and unpredictable working hours is having a dramatic affect on workers and employers," says Jon Messenger, an ILO Senior Researcher and co-editor of the study. "All of these things are creating increasing tensions which make work-life balance a big issue. Increasingly, we need new policies to help promote this work-life balance."
The study says intense competitive pressures in an increasingly 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week economy are driving companies to tailor working time arrangements more and more closely to market demands. This, in turn, has led to increasingly variable hours of work.
Mr. Jon MESSENGER will meet with journalists at a breakfast on Wednesday, 7 June, 9.15 a.m. at the Palais des Nations Restaurant (8th floor).
Among the key issues examined in the study are the relationships between employers and workers and the health and safety impact of atypical and unpredictable working time. The study says that the trend towards such atypical working times can create tensions between workers and employers, both of whom have their specific needs in the workplace.
The study also says the issue of flexible working time is especially critical for workers with family responsibilities, such as women who face the need to balance their working hours with their domestic and care obligations.
Observing these trends and the increasing use of results-based employment relationships, a new study sees growing "diversification, decentralization, and individualization" of working hours.
The study is a synthesis of the 9th International Symposium on Working Time, Paris (2004). This volume entitled "Decent working time: New trends, new issues" uses the "decent working time" perspective advocated by the ILO to evaluate the recent transformations of working time and of the policies implemented in the last few years.
Based upon both the existing international labour standards on working time and recent research on working time trends and development focusing on industrialized countries, the study proposes that "decent working time" policies should make sure that working time arrangements are healthy, "family friendly", promote gender equality, advance enterprise competitiveness and facilitate worker choice and influence over their hours of work.
Note 1 - Decent working time: New trends, new issues, edited by Jean-Yves Boulin, Michel Lallement, Jon C. Messenger and François Michon, International Labour Office, Geneva, 2006.
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