Hi everyone,
Apologies for the lateness of this blog but I had trouble logging in to my gmail and blog account, but I have got it working now :)
This week we are looking at employment relations in Europe. I found the European Working Time Directive to be quite interesting, which regards laws on the maximum number of hours employees can work each week at their workplace. Right now the European Working Time Directive states that an employee does not have to work for any more than 48 hours per week. But if the employee wants to work for additional hours beyond the 48 hours, he/she can opt out of the 48 hour agreement with their employer but this must be voluntary and in writing as well.
Working Time Directive Laws
I found a lot of useful information about working time laws at the website above.
European Working Time Directives and Opting Out
Above is one short video I found which talks about the Working Time Directive and how employees can also choose to opt out on whether they want to work above the maximum weekly hours for their job. The video also interestingly discusses how from a safety perspective the working time directives are a real positive as well. With studies to show, workers who stick to the maximum working hours make less mistakes in their job than they do when working beyond the maximum hours required.
I think this is a positive way for countries within the European Union to look at the the Working Time Directives especially when employee's safety comes in to the question. But at the same time this is interesting because in Australia the maximum numbers of working hours for an employee by law is 38 hours, which is quite a big difference to the European Unions 48 hour maximum.
Is 48 hours to much? Or is 38 hours to less? Tell me what you think.
Thanks everyone!
Hi Jonathan,
ReplyDeleteFirstly I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed the use of links and videos in your blog entry as it kept the reading interesting and interactive.
In regard to the topic of working time directives, I tend to be of a similar opinion as you as I believe that too many working hours will result in stress and lower job performance and safety for employees and subsequently reduced organisational profitability. In a practical sense, I found one article that presents empirical data supporting the idea that the job performance of many doctors in Europe increased as the working time directives in this area became more employee friendly ( http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.library.uwa.edu.au/stable/25460802)
Also personally I think that 48 hours is too much and that around 40 hours is the ideal maximum number of working hours for employees.
Ben :)