by Federica Pintaldi

1. 1st Meeting of the Working Group on the Measurement of Quality of Employment (12-13 June 2008, Paris, France) Dimension 3: Working time arrangements by Federica Pintaldi

2. Working time arrangements : a conceptual framework The aim of this paper is to evaluate how the indicators formulated by Task Force for the dimension “working time arrangements” can be useful indicators of quality of employment Working-time arrangements include different elements: normal and maximum number of hours per working day or week; overtime provisions; distribution of working-time during the day, week or year and associated flexible time arrangements These elements are considered as a fundamental dimension of international labour standards

3. Working time arrangements : indicators In relation to the criteria of availability and comparability, we consider four indicators source by Labour Force Survey (LFS) quarterly: • percentage of work on Saturday • percentage of work on Sunday • percentage of work at evening • percentage of work at night the concept of unusual hours is gradual: working on Saturday is less unusual then working at night Moreover, the LFS distinguishes between “usually” and “sometimes”

4. Working time arrangements : indicators • Saturday and Sunday • Code 1: "Usually" working at least two of the Saturdays/ Sundays in a reference period of four weeks preceding the end of the reference week • Code 2: "Sometimes" working on one Saturday/Sunday (at least one hour) in a reference period of four weeks preceding the end of the reference week • Code 3: "Never" (last four weeks) • Evening and Night work • Code 1: "Usually" working during the evenings/nights at least half of the days worked in a reference period of four weeks preceding the end of the reference week • Code 2: "Sometimes" working during the evenings/nights less than half of the days worked, but a least one hour in a reference period of four weeks preceding the end of the reference week • Code 3: "Never“(last four weeks)

5. Working time arrangements : indicators • It is useful to understand if it is better to consider who “usually” works in particular timetables only or who “occasionally” too • Moreover, considering the non-redundancy criteria, we have to evaluate if it is better using the four indicators or some combination of them

6. Working time arrangements : indicators The analysis concerns these main stages: European 27 • a comparison among the countries in order to verify the variability of the four indicators Italy • The relations among the 4 indicators and: - some socio-demographic background variables - the employment characteristics of main job • The variability of these indicators in the last 4 years • The convenience of working time arrangements for personal life situation by using the information available from adhoc module 2004

7. 38.8 48.8 27.7 15.8 Working time arrangements : EU27 In 2006 in Eu27 unusual working time arrangements is widespread, especially for people working on Saturday and at evening The incidence of atypical hours differs a lot considering the modalities “usually” and “sometimes”

8. List of indicators: rates Males work more often at evening and above all at night then to females However, the frequencies of modalities “usually” and “sometimes” maintain the same pattern for both sexes

9. List of indicators: hours of work The majority of not employees work on Saturday (75%) and at evening (53%) while employees work more often at night

10. Working time arrangements : EU27 the average of Eu27 offsets high differences among countries Considering only the modality “usually” the indicators are more helpful to point out particular conditions of work

11. Working time arrangements : EU27 ranking Countries that work more “usually” Countries that work more “usually” + “sometimes” Considering or not the modality “sometimes” the ranking of countries changes a lot in relation to atypical hours

12. Working time arrangements : EU27 ranking Countries that work more “usually” Countries that work more “usually” + “sometimes” In countries like Netherlands, Romania and Austria working on Sunday is above all “usually” while in countries like United Kingdom, Poland and Bulgaria is above all“sometimes”

13. Working time arrangements : EU27 ranking The relationbetween the two modalities is strongest considering people work at evening: the majority of the countries are in the quadrants of main diagonal

14. Working time arrangements : EU27 ranking Italy and Poland have an opposite situation: in Italy the percentage is about double of people work “usually” at night (8.2% and 4.8% respectively) but half of people work “totally” (11% and 22% respectively)

15. Working time arrangements : EU27 ranking Main results • In some countries the atypical hours are adopted above all in “usually” schedule while in others countries above all “sometimes” schedule • For this indicator it is not the same considering only the modality “usually” or both modalities • For Italy we can analyze the differences more in depth. The availability of microdata allows to set up new indicators combining the information of the four variables considered

16. Working time arrangement: Italy The variability of these indicators is low in the last 4 years

17. column Working time arrangement: Italy Italy 2007 Combination of people working on Saturday and on Sunday about 3 millions of employed people (12.3%) work usually on weekend almost the totality of employed people who work usually on Sundayalso work usually on Saturday but it’s not true the contrary

18. column Working time arrangement: Italy Italy 2007 Combination of people working at evening and at night 1,639 (7.1%) employed people in Italy work regularly in both the hours who works at nightalso works at evening but it’s not true the contrary

19. Working time arrangement: Italy The combination of four indicators highlights the different incidences of working time schedules • 11,969 (51.5%) Italian employed people work at least during one atypical hours • 1,133 (5%) work usually on weekend, at evening and at night • 5,494 (23.7%)workonly on Saturday (usually or sometimes)

20. Working time arrangement: Italy Main results • The indicator “working only on Saturday” doesn’t appear so interesting: the profile of the workers is similar to the total employment unless incidence of not employees and of service and shop and market sales workers • The indicator “working on Sunday” is typical of workers in sectors such us wholesale and retail trade, hotels and restaurants • Using the combination “working on Saturday and on Sunday usually” the indicator better describes the troubles to reconcile working time with personal life • Regarding people “working at evening and at night” we find the high presence of non national, workers of service and shop and market sales, of plant and machine operators and assemblers and of some service activities

21. Ad hoc module 2004 on ‘work organisation and working time arrangements’ Whether or not these flexible working arrangements are likely to be attractive to employed people is a difficult item • In the 2004adhoc module ‘work organization and working time arrangements’ we asked to employees the convenience of working time arrangements for personal life situation • The question we asked to employees that worked in at least one unusual hours during the reference period was: “Work in the evening, at night or during weekend is convenient or is not convenient for personal life situation?” • 25% of the employees that work in these atypical hours considers it not convenient for personal life situation This can be useful in order to select the indicators more linked to the dimension of quality of employment

22. Ad hoc module 2004 on ‘work organisation and working time arrangements’ Considering some combination of working time arrangement the incidence increases from 19% (only Saturday) to 34% (Evening and night usually)

23. Working time arrangement: conclusions • The ad hoc module results confirm that the concept of working arrangement should be strictly interpreted • Employed people onlyoccasionally work on some atypical hours should be not included • Following the Task Force’s criteria, we suggest two indicators: • Working on weekend usually • Working at night usually THANKS