N3

The author examines in this paper four interconnected issues: the ambivalent nature of work flexibility, which on the one hand makes work more precarious yet on the other seems to give greater opportunities for professional growth; the increasing «social recognition» of non occupational activities such as care or voluntary work; and, as a consequence, the prospects of a realignment between working and life times and the requirement for a new organisation of the protection system to provide answers to old as well as new risks and opportunities.

To find the answer to the question: «To what extent are Italians committed to work», working hours in Italy, Europe and the Us are compared and analysed to ascertain how they constitute an important element of the occupational model. Once demonstrated that the Italian occupational model guarantees a level of working commitment higher than the Eu average, productivity and per capita production results are examined. The clear loss of advantage of the Italian economy emerges from the comparative framework. The paper concludes by indicating some policy measures on working hours aimed at reorganising workplaces for the recovery of productivity.

The issue of working time and hours has always been at the forefront of Italian collective bargaining in Italy. The paper gives an overview of its evolution, highlighting how most objectives for the containment and duration of hours to the advantage of work has progressively shifted towards objectives for the negotiation and control of flexibilisation of working time requested by the companies. Recognition of this situation has indeed brought to the fore critical aspects, but also proposals that point out how working time bargaining is in Italy one of the most innovative areas of collective bargaining.

The article goes over union history in the textile sector and the pecu-liar aspects of bargaining on working time in this sector in the last thirty years. Looking back over the 105 years since the foundation of th union from the perspective of two actors in the front line - enterprise delegates and in the leadership of the national textile union of the Cgil - the paper analyses the restructuring and reorganisation processes involving the textile industry: from the first collective negotiations on working time and the greater use of plants and flexibility, in the search for a more advanced synthesis between the competitive interests of the enterprises and the workers’ individual and collective requirements, until more recent years characterised by the globalisation process and the national contract signed in 2000.

The article gives an historical overview of Filcams bargaining intervention on working time from the 70s to today’s challenges. In all the various phases, the sector’s structural and organisational situation and the aspirations of the workers (in prevalence female) have played a crucial part in the proceedings. The «negotiated» flexibility on working time, its distribution over the week, month and year becomes the main instrument to respond to various requirements and to contrast through negotiation the use of work precariousness. In this perspective the experimentation of working time self-management is a coherent evolution and represents a new frontier.

The article examines the results of the application of law 30/03 in the light of trends in subsequent collective bargaining and the results of decisions made by the Cgil on the matter. Remarks are given on some inquiries conducted by Istat and other institutes on the influence of measures introduced by law 30 on the Italian labour market. The results obtained highlight that bargaining has mostly complied with the indications set by Cgil and that hints at a general weakening of Italian occupation are becoming visible, due mainly to the increasing rate of forward contracts, especially in the case of female occupation. It is thus necessary to radically modify current legislation.

Part-time work is a widespread phenomenon in the Netherlands, es-pecially among women. Not only are part-time rates higher than in any other country, Dutch workers also report that they work part-time because they did not look for a full-time job. This paper de-scribes and explains the growth of part-time work in the Netherlands as a largely spontaneous process, triggered by the late but rapid en-trance of women in the labour market, the initially hesitant but in the end successful facilitation of part-time employment by labour market institutions and policies and, finally, an adjustment of the legal and tax system erasing much of the unequal treatment aspects of part-time work. Furthermore the paper provides an outlook for the Dutch one-and-a-half earner economy, comparing the Netherlands with the Uk and Germany, and poses the question why Dutch women so far did not seek the road towards full-time employment, the option preferred by their Scandinavian sisters.

Working time has always been considered in France to be an area of responsibility for the State. The Acts on the 35-hour working week come therefore from a long tradition of State intervention to regulate employment and working conditions. This way of ruling working time is not found in other European countries. This pape presents the French specificity: a work sharing logic supported by the State. The aim at generating employment through a legal reduction of working time brought the government to draw up an extremely complex set of Acts. They are not restricted to defining legal work duration; they also reduce social contributions and determine a precise framework to negotiate collective agreements. Most of the evaluations of the consequences of the 35-hour Act show that its effects on employment are limited, that social relations have not improved and that inequalities among employees have worsened. The French way of reforming rests on the belief in the absolute power of public action and in the rationality of the State, and on a mistrust of social forces.

The article analyses developments in German union policy in the metal sector in the light of economic and contextual changes which characterised the 90s and the effects produced on industrial relations. The consequences of the partial loss of union power have become evident with the rise in derogations on the collective agreements and in the impossibility of their «automatic» application in the enterprises. The most recent example of this deterioration is represented by the signing of the collective contract called «Pforzheim» in 2004, made possible by the considerable pressure posed by the possibility to export production sites thereby saddling with productivity and competitively costs , not only in terms of wages but also working times.

The comparative analysis of reconcilement policies promoted by European countries highlight the presence of various intervention models. The data suggest diversifying reconcilement tools to meet the needs expressed by increasingly more heterogeneous family and life models but also to support the centrality of system actions aimed at the provision of public care services with flexible times, of high quality and contained costs which contribute to overturning the gender division of care. Public intervention also allows the reduction of costs which would otherwise be sustained by enterprises thus reducing poverty and social inequalities in the long term as well as increasing productivity given the positive effects on learning capacity and living conditions of the new generations.

The article takes into consideration the part-time arrangement not as a measure to increase occupation but as a central aspect of a «multi-active» society where the individual, if s/he chooses, can dedicate more time to other spheres of life. Here part-time is perceived as a way to valorise work activities outside the market in a frame of the partial reduction of working time dedicated. By analysing the European panorama on part-time, the following classification of countries is used - Northern, Continental, Mediterranean - according to the extent of part-time, type, age distribution, part-time rates as well as the motivations which induce workers to opt for this work modality and related rights. It seems that the part-time arrangement, when well pro-tected, is a good conciliation tool between work and market, training for the young, family commitments for women, gradual withdrawal for the elderly (to do more leisure or voluntary activities).

Starting out from the premise that in order to encourage work/family reconcilement, it’s important to intervene at various levels - the sharing and redistribution of care work, market-targeted work modalities, organisation of local services, times and usability of life spaces - the paper examines the Italian case, demonstrating how reconcilement policies have been developed and consolidated due to pressure from the Eu and the importance of a nucleus of norms, the most important being law 53/2000. The variety of experiences conducted are traced back to three successive intervention phases and a type of reconcilement «measures» integrated by some proposals. Lastly, some critical aspects are highlighted for the development of these policies and the positive role of organisational innovation prospected and the resort to more advanced models for flexibility management.

From the analysis of current trends in female occupation and from the specific contradiction between the desire/necessity of women to enter the labour market, and the entire organisation of the market, stems the urgency to establish conciliation policies intended not as «corrective» downstream measures to allow women to conduct their triple roles as wives, mothers, workers but as innovative, transversal upstream policies as the crux of a new welfare. This thesis is supported in the paper through the analysis of a «case study» of a territorial coalition in the province of Arezzo and reference to recent European recommendations on the issue of reconciliation.

The paper analyses the relationship between life and working times and the transformations that have occurred in the passage from the Fordist, post-Fordist to today’s «globalised» society. The main contradictions that stem from the requirements for hyper-flexibility of working hours (synchronisation and desynchronisation, relocation of temporal rigidity and life quality, uncertainty, market risk and precariousness, the need for emergent security and the crisis of the system of guarantees) are listed. The matter of temporal flexibility is placed in relation to the other three dimensions of work flexibility: functional, numerical, wage. Some policy-making implications are developed from the concept of sustainable flexibility.

The paper examines legislation on working time in Europe, with particular reference to Community norms and their recent modification proposals, and to some countries in the European Union (Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany and Uk). The analysis conducted highlights, on the one hand, the inherent weaknesses of the former especially regarding worker protection standards and the possibility of derogation. On the other hand, after having examined the fundamental institutes of national norms, the author concludes by noting the weak influence of Eu norms on legislation in member states, indeed they seem to undermine current protection measures.

The paper analyses the quality of work in Italy in relation to the temporal dimension from the results of an Isfol inquiry on the matter. With reference to the satisfaction expressed by the workers on quality perceived in the workplace, the characteristics of working time (duration, regularity, atypical work hours, etc.) are analysed in relation to type of employment (temporary versus permanent, subordinate versus self-employment) and other aspects of occupation. Furthermore, the relationship between working time and other existential aspects (along with the related problems and perception of conciliation) in relation to the various living conditions and use of free time (family relations, social commitments, leisure activities and so on) is examined.

The author highlights the violent reproposal of the neoliberal ideology and the continual mortification of the most important aspects of the European social model according to the deterministic logic of economic models and ineluctable natural processes. The author comes to the conclusion that the factors hypothesised in literature on the crisis in European welfare states are inapplicable; and that the restriction of the range of possible evolutionary courses for future societies does not seem to be underway. The article analyses the alternative hypotheses to the crisis theories and to the demolition of the «European social model», exploring through the «human development’ approach the possible synergies between economic development and social development, competitiveness and justice, rights and growth which can once again shape welfare as a «productive factor».

The pension system reform in the various European countries has been at the forefront of the political and scientific debate for years. The necessity to face the new social-economic context has led to the introduction of new measures for the reorganisation of institutions. To promote widespread discussion on legislative innovations already introduced and on prospects for further commitment for the modernisation of pension systems, the seminar held in Brussels on 23-24 June 2005, entitled «Pension Policies and European Social Model» organised by Inca, Cgil and Ferpa (European Federation for the Elderly and Pensioners) with the collaboration of the Observatoire Social Européen, stimulated a debate between experts and social partners. Two papers presented at the seminar are published here. The first by David Natali deals specifically with these themes and took inspiration from the recent Green Paper on demographic changes published by the European Commission; the second paper reflects on the seminar proceedings.