Working time flexibility: two cheers for regultion, one cheer for the market

Item does not contain fulltextFlexibility of working time is not new. The difference today is the spread across varied groups of workers and activities and the many forms it has taken. Flexible working time is a very broad term. It refers to all working patterns that deviate from the 9 to 5 rhythm on an average weekly day. In this respect, non-standard work hours refer to work schedules that involve being at work at times outside the standard daily work schedule: evening, night, shift or week-end work). Over the passed years, traditional forms of expanding the duration of work - overtime, weekend, evening, night and holiday working - were regulated and have been eased by regulatory intervention or by collective agreements. The incidence of non-standard hours varies considerably between European countries, partly caused by differences in national regulations. However, also structural and demographic differences contribute to these inter-country differences in non-standard work hours.Paper presented at the international conference "Arbeitszeit und soziale Sicherung in der Lebensperspektive", 09 september 200