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Employment lawHR practiceWorking Time RegulationsWork-life balance

Time off leading to longer hours

by Personnel Today 14 Jun 2005
by Personnel Today 14 Jun 2005

Well-meaning but misguided politicians have created Europe’s long working hours culture by introducing social policies that allow people too much time off, according to the Federation of European Employers (FEE).

The contentious claim comes a week after the UK succeeded in retaining its opt-out from the EU Working Time Directive.

The FEE research has suggested that many European Union employees work well in excess of their basic contractual hours, mainly to cover for colleagues taking time off.

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In Belgium, France and The Netherlands, more than 20% of employees were absent from work at any given time, rising to 29.9% in Sweden, it said.

The research also argued that UK employees, who work an average of 44.8 hours a week, do not work the longest hours in Europe, as is often thought. Their hours are much the same as employees in Austria (44.7), and fewer than staff in The Netherlands (45.5).


Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

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