Modern scenarios for working (and life) times: (social and judicial) actuality of a classic in search of its (impossible?) «sovereignty»

Abstract

The reduction of the working day to 4 days a week (32 hours) is debated in several countries. For its part, the ILO calls for greater individual self-determination (sovereignty) of life times, also within work. However, in the day-to-day life of most people’s workplaces, the most relevant issue seems to be the opposite: the extension of the availability times for the interest of the company beyond the normal working day and the problems to disconnect. Localized guards, training times –often digital and off-hours–, times for socializing with clients, etc., extend working time and reduce time for breaks. Even collective bargaining, when it regulates the right to digital disconnection introduces new obligations for digital reconnection outside the normal working day.

Likewise, working people need greater flexibility to organize their work times, adapting them to their needs to reconcile work and family life. Therefore, the flexible distribution of the working day seems to be the prevalent debate in our time, both for productive reasons and for worker reasons. So much social and legal complexity in ordering working and life times significantly increases judicial conflict. This study makes a detailed analysis of the state of the judicial and jurisprudential art in terms of effective working times, availability times and rest times.