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The survey aimed to complement existing Eurofound data and research on working time which is based primarily on surveys of individual workers and on literature reviews and case studies. As part of the survey, personnel managers and – where available – employee representatives were interviewed about working time arrangements and work–life balance at their workplaces.
It was designed to find out whether, why and how companies make use of the broad variety of working time arrangements, including flexible working hours, overtime, full-time and part-time work, flexitime, work at unusual hours (e.g. shift work, night work, weekend work), childcare leave or other forms of long-term leave, and phased or early retirement.
An overview report published in 2006 outlines initial results of the survey. This was followed by a series of four additional reports focusing on specific working time arrangements (part-time work, childcare leave, early and phased retirement, and extended operating hours) and a further two reports analysing the data in a more comprehensive way and focusing on flexibility at company level and the social dialogue at company level in relation to working time and work–life balance issues.
The survey was conducted in over 21,000 establishments, covering both the private and public sectors. The number of cases per country ranged from about 350 cases in the smallest economies to 1,500 cases in the largest economies. TNS Infratest Sozialforschung, Munich, coordinated the fieldwork for the ESWT survey which was carried out in the autumn of 2004 and the spring of 2005.
The survey included all companies with 10 or more employees across all sectors of activity. Personnel managers and – where available – employee representatives were interviewed about working time arrangements and work–life balance at their workplaces
For further information about the European Company Surveys, contact Sophia MacGoris.