ABSTRACT
The preceding chapters have explored different aspects of individual workers’ needs and preferences with respect to their working time by addressing one kind of ‘decent work deficit’ (ILO 2001a): the gap between the working time schedules which individuals need or would prefer and the ones they are required to work. In adopting this approach, they provide a basis from which to consider how the goal of decent work can be advanced in the arena of working time, allowing a notion of ‘decent working time’ to take shape. Drawing on the discussions presented here, the most significant dimensions of decent working time can be identified: working time arrangements should be healthy; ‘family-friendly’; promote gender equality; advance productivity; and facilitate worker choice and influence over their hours of work.
