While the provisions in the printing industry are very vague, other sectors like public services and telecommunications and posts have a regulation that overtime work is to be compensated, in principle, exclusively with free time. Only a few sectors have explicit regulations for Saturday work . In the paper processing industry, works councils and employees have, at least formally, the possibility of refusing Saturday work. In the banking sector it is possible for employees to change their working patterns as far as the organisational framework allows it, and employees who want to change have to announce their interest six months in advance. In some agreements, a minimum daily or weekly working time is fixed for part-time employees in order to guarantee that their working time is not divided into too many small blocks.
Partial retirement is regulated in most collective agreements.
In recent years, there have been no further reductions in working time . Collective agreements in all sectors allow varied forms of flexible working time at plant level, but individual rights to arrange an employee's own working time are not very flexible. Commentary The WSI survey shows that collectively agreed working time arrangements in the overall service sector differ not only relating to the length of the working week but also to overtime and flexibility. Given that Ver.di plans to work out some basic guidelines on collective bargaining policy which are to be binding for all participating unions, it is obvious that they have to agree on a common working time policy as one important element. Since working time policy also affects aspects of gender equality, and a high proportion of women work in the service sector, it is important that Ver.di deals with the reduction of working time, part-time work and flexibility.