Vertrauensarbeitszeit

Abstract

Working time based on trust is a new form of working time organization. It is not just a new model of working time, but a completely new way of dealing with the problem of working time and work organization in general and in so far a central building stone of a new rationalization strategy based on the organizational autonomy of the employees. The problem with this new form of working time organization is not that it stresses the autonomy of the employees. On the contrary, the problem is, that the autonomy is stressed and undermined at the same time. On the one hand, the autonomy of the employees is part of a system of indirect company control, confronting the employees with the market under conditions defined by company managements living in a culture of shareholder value. And on the other hand, working time as an object of policy is shifted from the level of company bargaining to the level of individual negotiations between employee and superior. In this situation the pressure on working time is high and the individual employee is in a conflict of working time interests. New forms of collective regulation can help if they refer to the new autonomy of the employees. This is also an opportunity for codetermination and collective regulation.