ozfA

Project lead
Prof. Dr. Ingo Matuschek

Project staff
Christoph Krause

Third-party funding provider
Hans-Böckler-Stiftung (Trust) 

Project duration 
October 2019 – February 2021

Cooperation partner
Duisburg-Essen University

Being able to work flexibly where and when you want - not only in Corona times - is becoming more and more important: Changing workplaces and working times, being on call and working overtime are combined with an ever blurrier boundary between work and private life due to web-based networks. Work is often carried out outside of company premises and is done at different places. Being flexible can be difficult, but it can also be an advantage: the balance between work and reproduction sphere is becoming easier. Working when and where you want has, however, hidden risks alongside its potential. For this reason, a specific implementation process is needed in the real world. Structure and interest groups are therefore of great significance. To achieve this balance between work and individuals' personal lives, factors such as the AZG (Working Hours Act), data protection etc. must be taken into account as well as the most recent collective agreements in terms of working times and places. Company agreements regulate such parameters. They are mostly well researched, but what is little known are the operational and personal effects of implementation: It remains unclear what makes a good company agreement in terms of where and when digital work is to be done, i.e. what conditions are necessary/required in practice.

Focusing on company agreements, the project examines operational practice in terms of working times and places across sectors. This leads to a number of questions, such as: Who is the initiator/drive behind the company agreement? What constellations of people are involved and what culture of codetermination seems to be particularly beneficial? How does this justify good practice in terms of flexible working in time and place? How is good working practice defined, where are adjustments necessary and how do co-determination committees process them? What is required for company agreements to "work" and their content to be put into practice? How important are examples of best practicefor agreement and their implementation? Is support required? If yes, in what form?
These questions are to be pursued in three case studies on the topic of company agreements in the metal and electrical industry, the chemical-pharmaceutical sector, the food industry and also in services. In selected companies, staff councils and those responsible as well as between three and five mobile employees will be surveyed about their flexible working conditions in terms of time and place, and if necessary, interviews with external experts (70-80 in total)will be carried out. The project is being carried out in cooperation with the Practical Knowledge of Works Agreements department at the I.M.U. of the HBS, which analyses company agreements in terms of flexible working in time and place with regard to its design and focus. In addition, workshops are being held by representatives from academia and industry.

The project had hardly begun when it became overrun by the Corona pandemic. What initially appears to be a disruption of normal operations proves to be both a challenge and an opportunity to be at the forefront of recording a mass of real-life experiments in working from home, forced on by the corona virus.