Results of the Mini-Conference on the 28th of February and 1st of March 1998 :
"No" to longer working hours.
The length of the working day, nightwork and shiftwork are very important health and safety issues. Time and again, scientific evidence has shown that irregular and long working hours undermine the health and increase the work accident risk.
Flexibility is the slogan of employers and politicians all over Europe. What they really want is to reverse the historic downward trend of the working time, which is the result of 150 years of workers struggles. Employers also try to use the Working Time Directive as a tool to reach their goal : to get rid of the normal working day all together.
These attempts must be rejected. The intensity of the work - high speed, high responsibility and high level of stress - has already increased immensely during the last 20 - 30 years.
Longer working hours are also destroying the scientific base for the occupational exposure limits. All over the world these are based on evidence related to a normal 8 hour working day. What happens to human beings exposed to these hazards for 12 or 16 hours a day instead of 8 is simply not known.
High unemployment and low job security can effect the human health negatively. The fight for shorter working hours is essential in order to lower unempoyment and gain a better working environment.
Many workers in Europe have to negotiate under the direct threat of outsourcing or moving production to low-cost countries. International collaboration and solidarity is essential for workers to stand against the still higher mobility of capital in this fight for shorter working hours.All efforts at maximimising the time people are away form the job - to restitute and develop as human beings - should be strengthened.
These are the reasons why we fully support the fight against "flexibility", in defense of the normal working day and for shorter working time.
Copenhagen, 1 March 1998
Steering Group of the European Work Hazards Network