a choice by women or employers?
Percentage of employed workers in the
EEC working part-time in 1980
Men 1.5 1.7 0.8 2.0 Women 23.7 12.2 23.2 6.8 Total 9.3 5.7 8.8 3.3 clude evening, weekend and holiday season work which is unpopular with and unattractive to male employees;
Part-time workers can be used to cover peak periods of business without the need to pay for a full week's work;
Less demand for skills meant that part-time and unskilled workers were adequate, and cheaper if wages could be kept below the threshold for National Insurance contributions.
The same report went on to explain why part-time work was attractive to
It correctly placed first the question of financial need; 'One of the most important reasons and one that must never be underestimated and which is becoming more important is the finanwork only for pin money can be quickly exploded. It goes on to point out that a report in 1978 by the Royal Commission on the Distribution of Income and Wealth had noted, that one of the most important factors to emerge from the evidence is the role of married women's earnings in lifting families out of the lower income levels.' A free choice or...
It cites as other reasons the falling birth rate, women's own expectations and possibilities, and the desire for company, 'to spend some time out of the home, in their own individual capacity, rather than as wives or mothers'. At the same time, it considers part-time "essential' for many women because of their 'primary responsibility' for domes-
It is undoubtedly the case that many women do consider it is 'essential' to find part-time work, given the lack of adequate childcare and other social services
And as the eight-hour day leaves so little time for other activities
'necessary' houshold tasks or "luxuries' such as time to relax.
A feature in the January 1984 issue of Antoinette, the women's magazine produced by the French CGT, the CP-led union, included explanations from a number of different women why they had chosen part-time work. These ranged International Viewpoint 21 May 1984
1.4 0.4 - 2.0 1.2 1.9 18.9 10.8 14.1 41.7 7.6 40.2 5.8 3.6 4.1 14.7 3.2 18.0 from a mother of young children, who saved from the cost of childcare as much as she lost from her salary by deciding not to work the one day (Wednesday) a week the schools are closed, to a telephone switchboard operator, on the job since 1945, who simply wanted a less stressful working week and more time to spend with her husband, already put into early retirement from his engineering job.
But the reality of the part-time work that the employers want to institute is not to introduce hours that aid women from the standpoint of domestic tasks, time for relaxation, etc., but to introduce a work schedule that meets their needs
The different forms of 'part-time' work that have been introduced can thus vary considerably.
For example, the multi-national company Philips, has introduced the following three systems of part-time work in its Belgian plants:
The 6/6 system, working either morning or afternoon for six hours with corresponding reduction of wages for a 30-hour week. Workers are taken on on fixed-term contracts to fill these part-
Working every afternoon from 4.30 pm to 10 pm, 3.30 pm to 8.00 pm on Fridays, making a 25 ½ hour week with, of course, corresponding earning and a 'voluntary' renunciation of the legal right to unemployment benefits as part-time workers;
Weekend work in two systems. One is two teams working 12 hours each on the two days, for a salary five full
The other is three teams each working 27 hours, twice ten hours and once seven hours, during the weekend. Bosses' needs
Another system of part-time work that has begun to be introduced into West Germany is the 'on call' system. There is a contract between the employer worker which stipulates the amount of hours to be worked over a month or a year but employees are notified only the day before of when they will be required to work, and are only paid for the working time, not the waiting time. There are other forms also, short-term contracts or temporary work. Often women will work regularly for the same employer on a temporary basis, taking off, for example, the summer period when the children are home from school. In this way the employers benefit from regular workers who keep coming back to a job they know, but who build up no seniority, no entitlement to workers rights that are based on the number of years worked or continuous em-
Demand in many factories drops over the summer and there is often a shut-down period of compulsory holidays anyway when these women would not be required. The difference is, of course, that they do not get holiday pay.
In Britain one common form of part-time work is evenings, from the time after a husband may get home to look after the children until around 10pm. Convenient, but it means no common social life for a couple while employers such as lateopening supermarkets get staff for the peak period when other people who work (usually women!) come to do their shoppinbob-sharing is another form of part-time working that has developed over the last few years. The idea is that two people share one full-time job in hours worked and amount paid. This form of
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----- photo credits and running heads -----
West Germany EEC total France United Kingdom Denmark Troland
"Last hired, first fired", that's why women are asking for the right to a job and quotas in hiring (DR)
part-time work first appeared in whitecollar and professional circles - usually to allow women with childcare and other family responsibilities to return to jobs they had previously held.
The British Department of Health and Social Security in 1969, for example, asked hospitals to 'give active encouragement to return to employment in the hospital service to married women doctors, and other women with domestic or other ties'. One of the ways it suggested of doing this was 'splitting existing post which have proved difficult to fill on a whole-time basis into two or more part-time appointments. In these situations, although other disadvantages of part-time work may not be present, in Britain, for example, job-sharers normally have more of the employment security and fringe benefits that the full-time job would carry, employers usually get a good deal for their money. Shorter workweek for all
As one job-sharer surveyed in Britain explained, 'Both I and my job-sharer do at least one-and-a-half times the hours of work we're paid for. Half-timers tend to work flat out without a tea break. In the same Equal Opportunities Commission
All the available evidence indicates that the rate of part-time work will continue to expand particularly for women, but also for other marginalised sectors — the elderly, for whom it is often seen as a way of 'easing into' retirement, young people who are forced or encouraged to combine it with continuing their studies, and the handicapped. To take France as an example, in one year the percentage of women working part-time rose from 12.2% in 1981 to 15.5% in 1982.
Part-time work among men has increased, although very slightly compared to the general rate of increase, but it is interesting to note that the OECD report noted that 'continuing studies' was the most frequent reason given by men who were in part-time work, while for women it was domestic tasks, particularly childcare.
The trade unions in Europe seem to share a common goal with the employers - shorter working time. But the goal of a 35-hour week with no loss of pay differs in some rather important aspects from the employers goal. As the European Community research committee of women explained:
From the employers' perspective, shorter working hours mean a better use of labour power, particularly a greater flexibility and, with the introduction of new technology, allows for a higher productivity.
The unions in the EEC countries generally supported the EEC directive, which, in addition to saying that the choice to work part-time must be voluntary, also laid out that it must be non-discriminatory, giving the same benefits, on a pro rata basis as full-time work, and other protection to workers rights. While those who work at part-time must be entitled to this protection, the starting point of the EEC itself was that women freely choose to work part-time.
Response of the trade unions to the expansion of part-time work has been moulded by the already existing frequency in their country. For example, the British TUC where the incidence of part-time work (and of married women working -over 40 per cent) is very high, is simply to make the demand for equal rights, and not at all to query whether there are other solutions for women. There is a similar response in the Netherlands where the percentage of women workers is very low and where it seems that part-time work is positive if it gives women a job at all.
But, even in those countries where the trade-union movement is officially opposed to the expansion, such as the French CGT, the Italian and West German unions, there has been little active response form the union movement, despite the correct fears of the Italian trade unions that the introduction of part-time work would be a danger to the unity of the movement and an obstacle to the struggle for a shorter working week.
The examples given above have illustrated that part-time work is offered to suit the employers' needs, not the employees. If full-time' working implied a shorter working week, with the necessary social facilities, it would be a better solution for women, than to be consigned to a continuing marginalisation within the workforce, where rates of pay are lower, collective organisation is weaker, and workers are at the mercy of the bosses' changing needs without the ability to fight to defend their own interests.
A recent report of the EEC on women in the workforce stated that the rate of unemployment among women had grown rapidly from 1981 to 1984 and now stands at 11.3 per cent, against 9.3 for men. This represents an eightfold increase in women's unemployment since 1970, while the number of men without jobs has doubled. But, for the EEC, the number of women in part-time unemployment are counted in the workforce.
report (published in July 1981) the REMIERES benefits to the employer were listed: flexibility ("sharers can be in two places at once'), peak-period coverage, continuity (if one has to take time off, the other can do the work) and more energy.
These examples reveal clearly the nature of part-time work - organised to suit the employers needs, to keep machines running continuously, or for more staff at particular periods than others, for which they are not prepared to take on workers who will benefit from the gains that the European workers movement has won in working hours and conditions, wages, paid holidays, sick pay and so on. 24
International Viewpoint 21 May 1984