The aim of the project is to gather knowledge on the involvement of social partners (trade unions, employers' organizations, business associations) in regulating working time in the public sector in partner countries as well as encouraging representatives of these organizations to take initiatives in the studied area. The public sector remains an important employer in the European Union countries, responsible for employing 23% of the total number of employees, as well as performing a regulatory role and providing the population with numerous necessary services. At the same time, striving to reduce the costs of functioning of the state and the emphasis on efficiency leads to more flexible employment in the public sector and practices such as outsourcing, which results in deterioration of the conditions offered to employees. Currently, the participation of social partners in shaping employment conditions in the surveyed sector is far from satisfactory - especially in countries outside the EU Fifteen issues such as time and work schedule are almost exclusively regulated by legislation, remaining outside the sphere of interests of collective bargaining participants.
The assumed aims of the project are to be implemented, among others, through the review of national law regarding the setting of working time and the potential to involve social partners in this process created by existing dialogue institutions. The analysis will include examples of good practices - solutions adopted so far to regulate working time in a way that is beneficial for employees, conducive to their satisfaction with the offered employment conditions and physical and mental well-being, as well as enabling a better work-life balance. The project also includes a number of activities aimed at disseminating the acquired knowledge among representatives of the social partners and all other persons affected by the studied issues.

Project duration : March 2019 – November 2020

Partners:
Confederación Española de Policía (ES) – leader
Instytut Spraw Publicznych (PL) – research module coordinator
Lietuvos teisėsaugos pareigūnų federacija (LT)
Granski sindikat uprave, pravosuđa, odbrane i policije NEZAVISNOST (SRB)
Confederazione generale dei sindacati autonomi dei lavoratori (IT)

The project is co-financed from the European Union Funds, budget heading ‘Improving Expertise in the field of Industrial Relations’.  Grant agreement number: VP/2019/0100.