64 years late!
Flexible working arrangements, beneficial to both employers and workers … such are the conclusions of an earlier study by the European Commission!
If “New World of Work” means a host of new management practices (management by objectives, management by project, knowledge management, etc.) and organisational forms (networks, virtual and independent teams, etc.), which combine with each other and are partially based on new uses of information and communication technologies, then the Commission embraced this new world.
But instead of accompanying these technological and societal changes, the Commission is 64 years late! In fact, it was in 1950 that George Orwell published his well-known futuristic novel “1984”, then. However, the Commission wants to introduce in 2014 a new system of control of working time, incompatible with the new forms of work which require more flexibility.
Result of the race… against the clock : WATCH YOUR WATCH !
Facing the new requirements of control of working time imposed by the Commission and that the Directorates-General are implementing, which constitutes a threat to the principle of trust and responsibility, R&D demands more FLEXIBILITY and asks the Commission to engage in immediate negotiations, including the:
- reduction of the range of core- hours and elimination of core-hours on Friday afternoon, like the other institutions;
- increasing the ceiling of flexitime hours that can be accumulated as in the Council, Court of Auditors, etc.;
- increasing the number of hours recorded (missions, part-time, etc.)
- revision of mandatory breaks (lunch, etc.);
- recording of the number hours worked during the weekend;
- …
R&D explains in the attached document the details of this issue.