Working Time Flexibility and Its Limitations

Originally, working time regulations were intended to increase the level of safety in the process of work. As a result, working time regulations were relatively stable and rigid. The traditional organization of working time turned out to be inadequate for circumstances in which work is performed. Over recent decades working time regulations have been profoundly flexiblized. This result has been achieved thanks to various legal instruments such as the extension of daily working time, longer reference periods for weekly working hours or more flexible schedules of working time (e.g. banks or accounts of working hours). However, the flexibilization of working time must confront with numerous limitations. First of all, they arise from fundamental rights and international standards as well as from the standards determined by the European Union. Important criteria of assessment are also European strategies such as work-life balance or life long learning. Finally the question of the paradigm of the employment relationship must be answered. The actual position of the parties thereto does not justify the significant change in the division of risk connected with employment.