"The current culture of working time is harming the fabric of society. In many cases, a worker’s desired working time does not correspond with actual working hours.” Thus, UNI Europa and its national union members have adopted the Vienna Declaration. The Vienna Declaration stands in reaction to the increasing disparity between the hours that workers want to work and the hours they actually work. The document evokes the concepts of a fair distribution of working hours, of workers’ autonomy in arranging working time that aligns with their lives, and of working time that supports life-long learning and increases employability. Planet Labor interviewed Uni Europa regional secretary, Oliver Roethig to talk about the various issues at stake from the trade union perspective.
- How pertinent is the impression that we have nowadays of the trade union movement in framing the theme of working time differently when compared to before?
Oliver Roethig. What we have clearly witnessed over several years is that working time continues to increase for people, and although sometimes they do have working time standards, workers also put in a lot of overtime. Of course, we would want to limit this. Secondly, and as importantly, is the fact that too many are working within precarious employment relationships.
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