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Flexible working time patterns have gained enormously in importance in recent years. Tins process has been accompanied by major changes in the area of industrial relations. The decision‐making power regarding working time issues is moving from the collective bargaining parties to the players at company level, namely management and works councils. How should we view these trends? How do they affect the options and freedom of action of companies and employees in the area of working hours? The article focuses on the options created by the introduction of working time accounts for the flexible oiganisation of work routines and the effects on the cost situation in modern companies as well as on the time‐based planning leeway it generates for employees. The available empirical findings support the hypothesis that the replacement of standard working time by time accounts can be described as a process of “controlled flexibility”. The introduction of time accounts is mainly observed within a regulatory framework that defines both bandwidths as well as rules for the variable organisation of working times. This practice enables companies to increase their internal flexibility and gives at least the majority of employees increased leeway to coordinate working and non‐working time.

The subject of part‐time work is one which has become increasingly important in industrialised economies where it accounts for a substantial and growing proportion of total employment. It is estimated that in 1970, average annual hours worked per employee amounted to only 60% of those for 1870. Two major factors are attributed to explaining the underlying trend towards a reduction in working time: (a) the increase in the number of voluntary part‐time employees and (b) the decrease in average annual number of days worked per employee (Kok and de Neubourg, 1986). The authors noted that the growth rate of part‐time employment in many countries was greater than the corresponding rate of growth in full‐time employment.

In Germany, the economic crisis 2008/09 was restricted to export-oriented industries such as automotive, chemistry, and mechanical engineering and hence to industries with a high proportion of qualified employees. Therefore, we expect the most current crisis to have a reversed effect on the relative earnings position between more and less qualified in contrast to a development that favored the more qualified since the beginning of the 1980s. Our empirical study is based on the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) Establishment Panel, a representative German establishment level panel data set that surveys information from almost 16,000 personal interviews with high ranked managers.

Despite the “German Job Miracle,” conditional difference-in-differences estimations to control for observed and unobserved heterogeneity reveal substantial employment reductions in establishments affected by the economic crisis. Falls in employment are strongest in plants with a relatively low proportion of qualified workers. Furthermore, our results indicate that the economic crisis is associated with a decline in wages, but only in those establishments that do not operate working time accounts. In sum, we do not find evidence for the current crisis having a reversed effect on the relative earnings position. Obviously once again, the higher qualified are better off than the lower qualified.

There is an emerging literature focusing on the impact of late career transitions on health, but little is known so far about the role working time modulations might play in explaining older workers’ health. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Using the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) Waves 4–7, the paper assesses the association between the different types of change in working time, the total weekly working hours at baseline and the level of income and the change in Self-perceived health (SPH). The model controls for financial wealth, qualification, gender, age, the sector of activity and self-reported health at baseline.

Respondents who retire have a better SPH compared with those who keep working at constant working time. Those who work long hours benefit more from retiring. Respondents working long hours before being unemployed tend to be less affected by a negative change in SPH. Those who reduce working time by 50 per cent or more and work long hours at baseline have lower probabilities to be affected by a negative change in SPH compared with those who work fewer hours. Finally, low-paid workers are those who benefit the most from retiring or reducing working time.

Results point out the need to foster working time arrangements for low-paid workers to prevent adverse health impacts.

There is a significant association between change in working time and change in self-reported health that has not been examined by previous studies.

The author argues that we must stop and take a look at what our insistence on human labour as the basis of our society is doing to us, and begin to search for possible alternatives. We need the vision and the courage to aim for the highest level of technology attainable for the widest possible use in both industry and services. We need financial arrangements that will encourage people to invent themselves out of work. Our goal, the article argues, must be the reduction of human labour to the greatest extent possible, to free people for more enjoyable, creative, human activities.

This “Rapport” proposes to examine the function and effect of British social law in the context of the employment/unemployment debate. This debate is a most significant one for it has not only British, but also European and International dimensions.

Looks in depth at Romania’s Labour Code and lists out in more detail all the relevant points, to show how employees and employers may work better together without conflict, Using guidelines from the European Union. Uses countries as a flagstaff for what could be done to improve matters for temporary employees.

NOW here is Mr. Leslie Huckfield speaking at the annual conference of the British Council of Productivity Associations. He (but of course!) is Parliamentary Under‐Secretary of State at the Department of Industry. He said “The Budget recognises the need to increase incentives at all levels in industry and particularly to improve the position of skilled workers and middle managers.”

Past studies on housework and marital studies seldom considered the possible endogeneity between these two factors. This chapter analyses data of the Women’s Status Survey 2010 to investigate the association between satisfaction with family status and housework participation in dual-earner married couples in China. The authors examine the association by ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models and structural equation models (SEM), taking into account of time constraints, economic resources and other demographic characteristics. Results suggest that both men and women are less satisfied with their family status if they share more housework than their partners, after controlling for household income, relative economic contribution, educational qualifications and other factors. Moreover, relative housework contribution is associated more consistently and significantly with satisfaction with family status than absolute housework time. In SEM, the authors include a correlated error term between housework time and satisfaction in the models to take endogeneity between these factors into account. For both urban men and women, relative contribution of housework, but not absolute time of housework, is still negatively associated with family status satisfaction.

New developments in trust‐based working time systems (i.e. systems whereby managers formally devolve their responsibilities for monitoring working time) in Germany are examined. A picture of these systems is presented and the main debates reviewed. It is argued that the successful introduction of such systems is contingent on a number of inter‐related factors. These are: company size and management style, external and internal pressures and effective employee representation. It is concluded that such systems are most likely to be successful in larger organisations and that effective employee representation is a key requirement. Current circumstances are not necessarily conducive to the rapid spread of trust‐based working time systems.