Reducing the annual working hours of wage earners: means and experiences from the 1980s

Preface

In connection with the combined settlement signed by the labour market organisations in August 1988, an agreement was reached on research into working time arrangements and needs, for the implementation of which the Research Institute of the Finnish Economy and the Labour Economic Research Institute were approached in 1989–90. In the first year of the research project funded by the Finnish Work Environment Fund at the Labour Economic Research Institute, a preliminary study was conducted focusing on two matters: examining, using existing statistical and research data, the development patterns of working hours and the working time preferences of wage earners in Finland, and reviewing the effects of various methods of reducing and arranging annual working hours. Another central aim of the preliminary study was also to map the conditions created by the available statistical data for the empirical individual studies in the second year of the research project, the purpose of which is to produce new and in-depth research knowledge on various working time arrangements.

This report is the second part of the preliminary study conducted at the Labour Economic Research Institute in 1989. The report examines the methods of reducing annual working hours implemented in various countries during the 1980s, the arrangements carried out in connection with these, and their effects, on the basis of studies and surveys that have been conducted.

I thank Pekka Korpinen, Reija Lilja, Tuire Santamäki, and Pekka Sauramo for their useful comments, and Irmeli Honka for the final preparation of the report’s layout. (AI translation)

Jorma Antila

• ISSN: 0358-5980
• ISBN: 951-9282-25-4