ABSTRACT
The industrial statistics on hours of work present no evidence that on the whole overtime work has increased since the start of the 1950s. The relationship between changes in the hours of work and technological advance can be discussed as a problem of how a balance is struck between work and leisure. For the legislative provisions and collective contract rules on hours of work, holidays, shift-work and overtime are often applied locally by agreement between the parties. Industries with relatively wider seasonal variation tend to rely on high overtime to meet their manpower needs in the peak season. The advent of the three- and four-week annual holiday has spurred on attempts to develop new methods of approach. The production and organizational problems created by the public holidays too have stimulated management in such industries to change hours of work and experiment with increased leisure during periods other than holidays.
