title: Flexible working hours, health, and well-being in Europe: some considerations from a SALTSA project.
abstract: The project brought together researchers from 9 EU-Countries and resulted in a number of actions, in particular the following: (a) There is an urgent need of defining the concept of flexible working hours, since it has been used in many different and even counterintuitive ways; the most obvious distinction is where the influence over the working hours lies, that is between the "company-based flexibility" and the "individual-oriented flexibility"; (b) The review of the Legislation in force in the 15 European countries shows that the regulation of working times is quite extensive and covers (Council Directive 93/104/EC) almost all the various arrangements of working hours (i.e., part-time, overtime, shift, and night work), but fails to provide for flexibility; (c) According to the data of the Third EU Survey on Working Conditions, longer and "irregular" working hours are in general linked to lower levels of health and well-being; moreover, low (individual) flexibility and high variability of working hours (i.e., company-based flexibility) were consistently associated with poor health and well-being, while low variability combined with high autonomy showed positive effects; (d) Six substudies from different countries demonstrated that flexible working hours vary according to country, economic sector, social status, and gender; overtime is the most frequent form of company-based flexibility but has negative effects on stress, sleep, and social and mental health; individual flexibility alleviates the negative effects of the company-based flexibility on subjective health, safety, and social well-being; (e) The literature review was able to list more than 1,000 references, but it was striking that most of these documents were mainly argumentative with very little empirical data. Thus, one may conclude that there is a large-scale intervention ongoing in our society with almost completely unknown and uncontrolled effects. Consequently, there is a strong need for systematic research and well-controlled actions in order to examine in detail what flexible working hours are considered, what and where are their positive effects, in particular, as concerns autonomy, and what regulation seem most reasonable.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine and Public Health, University of Verona, Italy. giovanni.costa@univr.it
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Costa
authors.forename: Torbjorn
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Akerstedt
authors.forename: Friedhelm
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Nachreiner
authors.forename: Federica
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Baltieri
authors.forename: José
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Carvalhais
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Folkard
authors.forename: Monique Frings
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Dresen
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gadbois
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gartner
authors.forename: Hiltraud Grzech
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Sukalo
authors.forename: Mikko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Härmä
authors.forename: Irja
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kandolin
authors.forename: Samantha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sartori
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Silvério
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004651:Employment; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016272:Occupational Health; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling; D020178:Sleep Disorders, Circadian Rhythm; D013995:Time; D014940:Work Schedule Tolerance; D016526:Workload