ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on initiatives in working time which can improve cost effectiveness by better relating employee hours of work to the organization's requirements. In the UK initiatives in working time have concentrated largely on ‘flexitime’ and part-time working. In the period of labour shortages in the 1960s and 1970s flexitime appeared to offer an attractive option for employees, one which provided for a measure of personal control over working time. The unions for their part have shown a willingness, at least at national level, to discuss ways of reducing working time which minimize this danger. The possibility of trade-offs between smaller pay increases, shorter hours and job creation has been publicly aired by some leading trade unionists. Since 1980, reductions in the length of the working week in the UK have affected over 8 million employees. Developments in working time have occurred outside the UK, particularly in many other countries of Western Europe.
