Based on data from 109 agreements, mainly in the engineering industry, discusses the trend to arrange flexible working schedules at plant level and the potential impact of these agreements on employment security and job creation.

In principle, two different types of working-time instruments were used to introduce working-time changes during the crisis. First, work-sharing schemes (with their country-specific institutional background and public subsidies); second, working-time adjustments based on unilateral or bilateral...