Galanaki

Flexible Working Patterns in Greece and Europe

Eleanna GalanakiAthens University of Economics and

Business, Dpt of Marketing and Communication

Use of Flexible working Patterns in Europe

• Data from the 2004 Cranet round

Weekend work Shift work Overtime

Annual Hours Contract

Part Time Work

Job Sharing

Flexi-Time

Temporary/Casual Work

Fixed-Term Contracts

Teleworking

Compressed Working Week

United Kingdom 65% 71% 92% 26% 97% 55% 48% 86% 75% 20% 29%

France 55% 78% 82% 70% 95% 7% 29% 90% 90% 5% 11%

Germany 79% 74% 55% 30% 98% 40% 90% 64% 97% 44% 28%

Sweden 65% 74% 99% 46% 99% 34% 94% 94% 98% 44% 20%

Spain 56% 86% 80% 34% 75% 18% 46% 85% 72% 12% 8%

Denmark 54% 58% 92% 33% 96% 15% 78% 85% 57% 39% 34%The Netherlands 40% 48% 62% 27% 99% 47% 50% 92% 71% 41% 39%

Italy 19% 65% 71% 7% 86% 2% 11% 44% 92% 20% 7%

Norway 84% 61% 98% 42% 95% 42% 92% 82% 89% 60% 26%

Switzerland 60% 51% 72% 44% 95% 38% 69% 40% 77% 33% 21%

Finland 66% 72% 95% 35% 96% 37% 83% 72% 95% 30% 15%

Greece 68% 85% 89% 9% 48% 7% 43% 51% 79% 9% 2%Czech Republic 62% 85% 94% 37% 79% 13% 78% 73% 85% 23% 18%

Austria 69% 69% 93% 29% 99% 27% 88% 43% 76% 30% 37%

Belgium 60% 74% 84% 14% 98% 26% 60% 71% 85% 24% 15%

Bulgaria 40% 81% 60% 40% 45% 32% 31% 54% 70% 4% 16%

Hungary 59% 68% 86% 14% 71% 17% 51% 41% 76% 14% 5%

Cyprus 74% 65% 88% 15% 55% 25% 49% 77% 57% 4% 5%

Iceland 83% 80% 99% 48% 98% 53% 82% 64% 86% 48% 21%

Estonia 67% 73% 80% 8% 69% 29% 50% 66% 87% 26% 9%

Slovenia 80% 83% 91% 27% 65% 31% 59% 47% 98% 11% 13%

Slovakia 60% 67% 87% 66% 12% 60% 60% 55% 7% 45% 0%

TOTAL 62% 71% 84% 32% 81% 30% 61% 67% 78% 27% 17%

Use of Flexible working Patterns in Europe

• Data from the 2003-4 Cranet round

• Data from the 2008-9 Cranet round

Weekend work Shift work Overtime

Annual Hours Contract

Part Time Work

Job Sharing Flexi-Time

Temporary/ Casual Work

Fixed-Term Contracts

Home-based work

Tele-working

Compressed Working Week

Austria 80% 66% 98% 27% 97% 36% 90% 49% 79% 14% 39% 40%

Cyprus 67% 62% 88% 33% 44% 16% 49% 56% 64% 9% 4% 5%Czech Republic 57% 90% 98% 12% 82% 5% 77% 53% 80% 11% 17% 100%

Denmark 49% 48% 92% 47% 98% 15% 81% 88% 57% 22% 70% 36%

Finalnd 79% 80% 97% 40% 99% 38% 92% 70% 97% 36% 39% 20%

Germany 83% 67% 59% 39% 98% 37% 94% 76% 93% 39% 52% 31%

Greece 66% 75% 80% 10% 44% 10% 33% 38% 66% 5% 10% 5%

Hungary 75% 55% 85% 21% 62% 27% 72% 33% 68% 17% 22% 6%

Lithuania 68% 67% 64% 8% 85% 35% 48% 51% 81% 8% 14% 53%

Slovajia 72% 65% 83% 45% 65% 22% 46% 51% 63% 18% 20% 8%

Sweden 73% 72% 98% 47% 95% 27% 92% 93% 98% 31% 32% 18%United Kingdom 55% 58% 76% 32% 90% 49% 55% 72% 77% 38% 29% 30%

Iceland 51% 62% 71% 58% 89% 30% 85% 63% 55% 9% 61% 23%

Switzerland 77% 62% 96% 52% 98% 58% 78% 46% 92% 28% 25% 28%

AVERAGE 68% 65% 83% 33% 76% 29% 66% 60% 73% 19% 29% 23%

Groups of Flexible Working PatternsRotated Component Matrixa

"Traditional"

Flexible Working

Patterns

Working from

distance or

distributing the

time worked

Temporary or

Fixed-term

Less total time

worked weekly

Shift work 0,73 -,234 ,148 ,121

Overtime 0,69 ,336 -,110 -,140

Weekend work 0,66 -,200 ,192 ,265

Tele-working -,070 0,74 -,102 ,020

Flexi-time -,202 0,58 ,270 ,064

Homebased work -,019 0,53 ,040 ,128

Annual hours contract ,212 0,43 ,236 -,018

Fixed-term contracts ,019 ,013 0,74 ,025

Temporary/casual ,321 ,167 0,6 -,012

Job sharing ,056 -,038 ,133 0,72

Compressed working week ,167 ,222 -,251 0,63

Part-time work -,083 ,211 ,465 0,49

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.

Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.

a. Rotation converged in 6 iterations.

Flexible Working Patterns in Europe Across time

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

Wee

kend w

ork

Shift

work

Overti

me

Tele-

working

Flexi-

Time

Home-based w

ork

Annual

Hours Co

ntract

Fixed

-Term

Contra

cts

Temporary/

Casual

Work

Part Ti

me Work

Job Shari

ng

Compresse

d Worki

ng Wee

k

Europe_2004

Europe_2009

Greece_2009

Flexible working practices in Greece, 2009Flexible working Patterns (use at >20% of personnel)

25.3%

41.4%

27.1%

1.0%

13.9%

1.0% 0.0%

6.7%3.8%

6.8%

2.4%0.0%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

Wee

kend w

ork

Shift

work

Overti

me

Telew

orkin

g

Flexi-

Time

Homebased

work

Annual

Hours Co

ntract

Fixed

-Term

Contra

cts

Tempora

ry/Cas

ual W

ork

Part T

ime W

ork

Job Sh

aring

Compresse

d Worki

ng Wee

k

Profile of Companies using Flexible Working Patterns

“Traditional” Flexible Working Patterns:• Lower percentage of managers (R= -0.15), professional/

technical (R= -0.24) and clerical employees (R= -0.24) or employees with higher education/university qualification (R= -0.36) and higher percentage of manual staff in total personnel (R= 0.41)

• Also higher % of personnel younger than 25 years (R= 0.15)• Lower labour costs as % of total operating costs (R= -0.16)• More probable to be serving the local market, rather than

the global one (R= 0.08) • Larger companies, in terms of employment (R= 0.08)


Working from distance or distributing the time worked:

• Higher percentage of professional/ technical (R= 0.20) and clerical employees (R= 0.08), as well as managers(R=0.07) and employees with higher education/university qualification ((R= 0.18) and lower percentage of manual staff in total personnel (R= -0.22)

• Also lower % of personnel younger than 25 years (R= -0.08)

• Higher labour costs as % of total operating costs (R= 0.14)

• More probable to be serving the local market, rather than the global one (R= 0.07).

• Larger companies, in terms of number of employees (R= 0.06)

• Less probable to be a family-owned company (Spearman’s Rho= -0.07)


Temporary or Fixed-term agreements:

• Lower percentage of managers (R= -0.13), professional/ technical (R= -0.07) and clerical employees (R= -0.09) or employees with higher education/university qualification (R= -0.36) and higher percentage of manual staff in total personnel (R= 0.05)

• Also higher % of personnel younger than 25 years (R= 0.10) or older than 45 (R= 0.12) and lower % of personnel between 25 and 45 years old (R= - 0.14)

• Lower annual staff turnover (R= -0.07)


• More probable to be serving the global market(R= - 0.06)


Less total time worked weekly:

• Lower percentage of professional/ technical staff (R= -0.09) and lower percentage of workforce with a higher education/ university qualification (R=-0.07)

• Also higher % of personnel younger than 25 years (R= 0.17)

• Higher annual staff turnover (R= 0.11)


• More probable to be serving the global market(R= - 0.06) • Larger companies, in terms of number of employees (R= 0.08)

Economic Sector (Difference across sectors at the 0.00 level)

"Tra

dit

ional"

Fle

xib

le

Wo

rkin

g P

att

ern

s

Wo

rkin

g fro

m d

ista

nce o

r

dis

trib

uti

ng

th

e t

ime w

ork

ed

Tem

po

rary

or

Fix

ed-term

Le

ss t

ota

l ti

me w

ork

ed in

th

e

wee

k

Agriculture, hunting, forestry, fishing -0,01 -0,12 -0,23 0,02 Energy and water 0,05 0,05 -0,04 -0,13 Chemical products, extraction and processing of non-energy minerals

0,09 -0,21 0,04 -0,14

Metal manufacturing, mechanical, electrical and instrument engineering, office and data

0,26 0,11 0,04 -0,20

Other manufacturing 0,35 -0,21 -0,21 -0,12 Building and civil engineering 0,02 -0,19 -0,27 -0,42 Retail and distribution, hotels, catering, repairs 0,33 -0,25 0,16 0,32 Transport and communication 0,20 -0,10 -0,15 -0,11 Banking, finance, insurance, business services -0,52 0,29 -0,11 0,07 Personal, domestic, recreational services 0,36 -0,28 0,51 0,11 Health services 0,16 -0,12 0,11 0,51 Other services -0,58 0,13 0,19 0,12 Education -0,61 0,15 0,57 0,20 Social services 0,11 -0,21 0,44 0,64 Public sector -0,18 -0,07 0,28 -0,03 Other -0,01 0,12 -0,22 -0,16 total 0,01 -0,01 0,01 -0,01

Country(Difference across countries at the 0.00 level) "Traditional"

Flexible Working Patterns

Working from distance or

distributing the time worked

Temporary or Fixed-

term

Less total time

worked in the week

Austria 0,26 0,12 -0,12 0,35

Cyprus 0,22 -0,57 -0,05 -0,53

Denmark 0,12 1,02 -0,37 -0,21

Finalnd 0,07 -0,02 0,61 -0,03

Germany -0,42 0,22 0,54 0,26

Greece 0,17 -0,77 -0,35 -0,46

Hungary 0,03 -0,35 -0,43 -0,20

Lithuania -0,21 -0,71 -0,69 0,83

Slovajia 0,19 -0,49 -0,17 -0,22

Sweden 0,18 0,13 0,80 -0,22

United Kingdom

-0,10 -0,05 0,04 0,26

Iceland -0,29 0,14 -0,21 0,12

Switzerland 0,02 0,11 0,10 0,25

Conclusions

• Flexibility in working arrangements is a very “varying” concept: it can take different forms in order to meet the needs of both the employer and the employee

• We identified four broad categories of flexible working patterns: “traditional”, “working from distance or distributing the time worked”, “temporary or fixed-term” and “less time worked weekly”

• Each appears to fit better companies and personnel, according to sector of activity, type of organisation and profile of personnel

• At the same time, the economic and legal background of the country also appear to be relevant