Eurostat: Employer mainly decides on working time in the EU

In 2019, the employer, organisation or clients mainly decided on the working time of almost 118 million of the 194 million employed people aged 15 to 74 in the European Union (EU), according to Eurostat.

In other words, the employer, organisation or clients determinedthe start and end time of the working day in the main job for the majorityof the employed(61%) in 2019.

Moreover, almost one in five workers (17%) reported to have beencontacted several times during their leisure time in the last two months, while almost one in four workers (23%) had been contacted occasionally.

The majority of employed people in the EU (59%) reported not being contacted by their employer or their clients during the leisure time in the last 2 months.

Unforeseen demands

Although employed people in the majority of the EU Member States reported that their employer, organisation or clients decided on their working time, almost 60% of the employed in the EU rarely or never faced unforeseen demands, such as requirements by tasks, clients or superiors, with the consequence of changing the working time in their main job.

Around one in five employed people faced such unforeseen demands at least once a week (21%) or once a month

(19%).

In addition, taking one or two hours off for personal or family matters at short notice was considered as very to fairly easy for 66% of the employed. Similarly, the majority of the employed (55%) considered taking one or two days of leave at short notice as very or fairly easy.

Adapting working time

One in five employed adapt their working time at least once a week due to unforeseen demands at work

In 2019, around one in five employed (21%) faced unforeseen demands with the consequence of changing the

working time in the main job at least once a week.

Among the EU Member States, more than one in three people employed in Luxembourg (37%) adapted their working time at least once a week due to unforeseen demands in 2019, followed by those employed in Finland (31%), France, Austria and Slovenia (all 27%), as well as Italy (26%).

In contrast, the lowest shares were reported in Bulgaria (8%), Lithuania and Hungary (both 9%), followed by

Slovakia (11%), Spain (13%) and Estonia (14%).