Flexible employment practices and working time patterns: the potential for and limits of ecological impact

Abstract

The discussion about the relationship between employment policy and environment policy has been predominantly about the extent to which environmental issues can be brought into industrial relations policy. Environmental problems are perceived as additional factors of influence, which have an impact on job security and working conditions, and which have so far not been adequately taken into account in standards and rules. From the current viewpoint of union representatives, conservation of the environment is being brought into discussion in the form of an "employment policy extended to include the environment". Progress made in this field in recent years is increasingly undermined by radical changes in the labour market. The current phase is being determined by high and rising rates of unemployment, growing numbers of casual and temporary jobs and stagnating pay levels. The strategies of management focus on increasing the flexibility of the workforce, in the form of flexible employment conditions, and more flexible use of laboúr. These changes in the crucial framework conditions for paid employment are bound to have a significant influence on the attitudes and behaviour of employees with regard to conservation of the environment. In the following article, we shall be looking at two aspects: Garcia and La Roca (1) deal with the increase in casual and temporary jobs, and Hildebrandt and Kühleis (2) deal with new patterns of working hours. This different emphasis relates to different aspects of "increased flexibility" . On the one hand, flexibility can be seen as a sign of increasing job insecurity, with the consequence that the scope for sustainable attitudes and behaviour is less than before. If, on the other hand, increased flexibility is seen as an opportunity for negotiating more leisure time and power for workers to allocate their time as they want - as in the German case - the room for manoeuvre is greater and it opens up possibilities for a sustainable way of life. The remarks in the first section deal with a representative survey of current attitudes in Spain, and lead to predominantly ' negative results. The second section deals with new models of working hours, and in this context, it examines the conditions and opportunities for positive changes in the lifestyle of employees. The approaches in the first and second section are not directly comparable, but they do provide insight into possible consequences of new management strategies for ecological commitment among employees in their working and leisure time.