The average collectively agreed normal working time, which covers some three-quarters of the labour force in Europe, has remained static overall in five of the former EU15 countries and Norway, and has fallen by less than an hour per week in three, the report says. Over the nine-year period 1999-2007, average agreed normal weekly hours in the former EU15 countries and Norway fell only slightly from 38.6 to 37.8, a reduction of 2.1%. Reductions of an hour or more have occurred in Luxembourg (1.0 hours), the UK (1.1 hours), Portugal (1.2 hours), Sweden (2.5 hours) and, most notably (driven by legislation), France (4.0 hours).
Since 2003, when EIRO started collecting data in the new Member States, the 40-hour working week has remained the standard in the majority of these countries. Exceptions to the 40-hour week are found in Cyprus, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, where agreed hours are closer to the EU15 average. Slovakia is the only country among the new EU Member States where considerable working hour reductions have been recorded over the past few years.
Across the European Union, the highest levels of actual weekly hours(i) worked by full-time employees in their main jobs are found in Bulgaria, Romania and the UK, and the lowest in France, Italy and Denmark. Ten of the 12 new Member States report actual working hours above the EU 27 average, compared with only three of the EU15.
The report, which also allows for the comparison of average collectively agreed annual paid leave entitlement for workers in the EU 27, affirms that the average number of fully paid holidays in Europe is 25.2 days per year. The average in the EU15 and Norway stands at 26.7 days, with great differences between Sweden (33 days) and Greece (23 days). Among the NMS, figures are available only for Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Romania and Slovakia, where the average is 21.9 days of paid leave per year.
