ABSTRACT
The preceding chapters of this book have reviewed working time around the world from a variety of perspectives: from regulatory frameworks and national policies on working time to trends in actual working hours, and from the consequences of tertiarization and informalization on working hours to the specific experiences of different groups of workers, such as those workers with family responsibilities. This final chapter will begin by summarizing the main findings. It will then turn to a discussion of the implications of those findings for working time policies in developing and transition countries, based on the ‘decent working time’ policy framework originally developed in our earlier study on working time in industrialized countries (Messenger, ed., 2004). Because of the large ‘gaps’ in what is known about working hours and working time arrangements in these countries, this policy discussion will also suggest a number of areas for future research. Finally, it will offer some concluding remarks regarding the way forward towards decent working time around the world.
