Nearly a century after adopting its first international standard on working time, a new ILO study estimates that one in five workers around the world - or over 600 million persons - are still working more than 48 hours a week, often merely to make ends meet.

The new study, Working Time Around the World: Trends in working hours, laws and policies in a global comparative perspective, says that an estimated 22 per cent of the global workforce, or 614.2 million workers, are working "excessively" long hours.

A number of policy points are suggested to advance decent work in the area of working time. These include the reduction of long working hours to lessen the risk of occupational injuries and illnesses, and their associated costs to workers, employers, and society as a whole.

The main findings and policy implications of the study may be viewed here.

A video presentation of an interview with Jon Messenger, one of the authors of the study, is also available.

To order a copy of the study, visit www.ilo.org/publns.

The CISDOC database contains references to reports and articles on working time and the ILO Encyclopaedia of Occupational Health and Safety contains a chapter on Hours of Work.