The Press SATURDAY, JANUARY 5, 1974. Gliding towards more flexible hours

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33425, 5 January 1974, Page 10

The Press SATURDAY, JANUARY 5, 1974. Gliding towards more flexible hours

Glide time—known in Western Europe, where the idea began, as “ flextime ” —appears to have come to stay in New Zealand. Government departments and insurance companies which have tried the experiment here report benefits for staff and management, and general appreciation of the idea by both. Even the customers have been reported to receive a better service. There are many variations of the scheme. The basic idea is that employees may alter their starting and finishing times at work each day, within prescribed limits, provided that all the staff are present during certain hours each day—the “ core time In addition, some schemes allow employees to work longer than usual each day and then take an extra day off, say, once a month. Not all work suits the scheme, of course; at present many industrial agreements in force in New Zealand do not permit much variation in the hours worked each day before overtime provisions apply. Yet some kind of voluntary flexibility in working hours may become possible for many more workers.

So far the experiments have been confined largely to “white-collar” jobs or to persons not covered by an industrial agreement In 1972, the Public Service Association recommended the experiment in appropriate Government departments, but the Federation of Labour has, so far, been generally opposed to anything that looks like interference with the five-day, 40-hour week. Rather than flexibility in hours, the more militant unions may be expected to follow their Australian counterparts in pressing for a five-day, 35-hour week. Flexible hours might be introduced without the loss in production generally entailed by shorter hours. Experience in Europe and Australia suggests that productivity can even be increased as a result of better morale and less absenteeism. It is possible that in some industries flexible working hours will enable shorter total working hours. Experiments in flexibility should come first.

If flexible hours become more general, they will have effects well beyond any advantages for those immediately concerned. They might lead to a considerable reorganisation of public transport—and longer hours for those who operate it; they might produce a new pattern of demand for recreational and amusement services. In Europe the opening times for theatres, art galleries, and museums have had to be changed; times for sporting fixtures have had to be varied; even ideas about “ peak viewing ” time for television have been challenged. Most confusing of all, experiments abroad have determined that more hours for leisure, or different hours of leisure, do not necessarily lead to greater enjoyment, or a better understanding of w’hat can be achieved in free time. Before changes in working hours become widespread, New Zealanders might well consider much more fully what kind of society they hope to build if the constraints of employment become less onerous.