To fight against the growing desynchronization of personal and family rhythms of life on the one hand and professional on the other, it would be necessary to establish an increase in working hours offbeat during the day or on Saturday.
The problem
Developments in the labor market and rhythms of life have led to much greater flexibility in working time. While certain social groups have gained more flexibility and increased access to certain services, including leisure or comfort, other categories of workers undergo an increasing desynchronization of their personal and family rhythms on the one hand and professional on the other (Devetter and Valentin, 2024). The current regulation of working hours largely ignores these issues: only at night (in a fairly restrictive sense) and Sunday are the subject of compensation for workers in law or collective agreements. However, other periods of the week (Saturday) or the day (between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. or between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m.) are particularly penalizing for employees confronted with it. Sometimes the use of these hours is necessary to meet a request, but it then generates a higher value from which employees do not benefit. In other cases, these hours are used for reasons of organizational simplicity (as in cleanliness) or even as a means of increasing the segregation of workplaces (Godechot et al., 2023).
The proposal:
Establish an increase in working hours offbeat during the day (between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. or between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m.) or Saturday.
How does it work ?
Discourage the use of atypical hours and/or compensate for the social cost of the latter for employees can go through an increase in these slots like what already exists for night schedules. This type of increase can be a lump sum (+€ 2 after 18:00) in order to act all the more strongly as the wages are low or correspond to a percentage of the salary. The attachment of the level of this type of increase can be of negotiations between social partners at the interprofessional level or that of branches. However, the fragility of trade union organizations in the most concerned sectors requires the definition of legal minimum public order (such as 10% for overtime) and sufficiently high to influence the organization of schedules or at least compensate for the arduousness of these schedules.
On what research work is the proposal founded ?
Research relating to the flexibilization of working hours has underlined, for a long time, the social costs of the development of atypical schedules, both for health and for family life (Barthe et al, 2004). They also highlight the role that wage increases can play (Rubery et al. 2006, pp. 123-151). Beyond night and weekend work, various international experiences exist, especially in the Nordic countries, like the Icelandic cleanliness branch which provides for an increase of 80% of hourly wages before 8 a.m. and after 5 p.m.
How to implement ?
If this type of regulation concerns all employees, it particularly affects certain sectors of activity where low wages are frequent (such as cleanliness, home help, catering or retail). In these professions, the effect on the cost of labor may not be anecdotal and thus encourage reorganizations deemed desirable, including by employers as well as in cleanliness. When these reorganizations are less easily possible (catering for example), this type of measure can help share the social cost of atypical schedules with those who profit from it (customers and employers).