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Workers in the 10 new EU Member States work on average 112 hours - or almost three working weeks - more per year than workers in the EU15, according to the Foundation’s European Industrial Relations Observatory (EIRO) in its annual update on working time developments. Workers in Sweden, for example, had 44 days off from work last year - more than double the collectively agreed annual leave and public holidays for workers in Estonia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovenia.
Collectively agreed weekly working time has stabilised at 38.6 hours in the last two years, on average 0.7 hours shorter in the EU15 and Norway and 0.9 hours longer in the new EU countries. The EIRO comparative report found, however, that the normal working week is longer in all countries (except Lithuania) than the average collectively agreed working week. In the EU25, average usual weekly hours were 40.2 in 2003, compared with average collectively agreed weekly working time of 38.6 hours in 2004.
The highest levels of usual hours worked by full-time employees in the EU25 are found in Latvia, the UK and Poland, and the lowest in Italy, France and the Netherlands. Within the EU15 countries, the United Kingdom stands out with the longest full-time hours (43.1) and a 5.9 hours gap between agreed and usual hours. Norway has the lowest hours of all the countries examined.
Source: Eironline
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