New ways with flexi-time

Citation

(1999), "New ways with flexi-time", Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol. 23 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/jeit.1999.00323gab.009

New ways with flexi-time

New ways with flexi-time

Keywords: Flexible working hours, Overtime, Germany

German employees worked about 1.83 billion hours of paid overtime in 1998 compared with more than 2 billion in the early 1990s. Resorting to overtime is often necessary in small and medium-sized businesses to meet fluctuations in the production process and the requirements of the market, but, even so, it has been established that a reduction of 40 per cent in overtime could create 400,000 new jobs.

The German Federal Government would like to see management and the unions begin this task. With this encouragement and with business under cost pressures all the time, there is also growing use of a better solution: the system under which employees work when they can, and crediting or debiting them with work input or the work still required. People voluntarily working after the sun goes down is on the increase once again, particularly in the export sector.

Since 1970, the amount of overtime has been halved even though the statutory working week has fallen from 41 to around 37 hours. Wages have risen and there are always calls for redistribution of the work available but, at the same time, care has always had to be taken with needs of individual firms, particularly those with a relatively small staff. There is also the question of employment trends and social needs.

Two examples of the new work pattern:

1. 1.

   Trust time: employers arrange work times with their employee, who is paid by results not by the hours put in.

2. 2.

   Hours account: working time is kept flexible by permitting space between paid time and working hours. It is up to the employee to decide how to spread the work, making up the slack perhaps at night for other times when it is possible to go home early.

The hours-account system has proved to be a particular winner, according to a recent survey among works councils of leading firms. It has proved to be a boon in meeting the needs of individual firms without their resorting to overtime or taking on new people. As business experts agree that overtime in a complex developed economy can never be eliminated, the fresh approach to flexi-time has made a great difference to small and medium-sized enterprises.