Working-time options over the life course: New challenges to German companies in times of crisis

The significance of life-course oriented approaches to working-time organisation is heightened in the current context of demographic change and profound transformations in the system of gainful employment and employment biographies. The aim of these approaches is to create new and better ways for employees to adapt their working time to their changing needs over the life course to have time for providing care and nursing, and for recreation and further education. This paper uses empirical examples of long-term or working-life time accounts to examine whether and under which conditions these approaches are actually implemented in company practice. It also outlines new risks and challenges raised by the recent economic crisis. First, current demands regarding the organisation of working time are outlined and new approaches to life-course oriented working-time policy are presented. The opportunities and restrictions associated with individual options for the organisation of the working lifetime are then discussed on the basis of recent research results on the distribution and utilisation of working-life time accounts. The results indicate that there are significant barriers to and difficulties with the implementation of working-life time accounts. They underline the need for an integrated approach to life-course oriented working-time organisation that links individual workingtime options with working-time reductions and active employment policy at both the company and collective-bargaining and statutory levels (Section 5).