These changes were achieved
through the implementation if a ‘Partnership
Agreement’ in April 1991, which aimed to
establish single-status conditions for all
staff and covered wide-ranging revisions to
pay and working conditions.
The agreement offered area
managers one of two different working
arrangements, which were to operate on a
12-month trial basis. The first was planned
working time (PWT); the second was a ‘lieu
time’ arrangement, with one day being
rostered off every four weeks.
The aim of the PWT scheme is
to provide a mechanism, which ‘facilitates
the introduction of different pre-planned
patterns of work more closely related to the
needs of the business’. There is a basic
contract of 1,664 hours per year (which is
equivalent to the 37-hour week after
allowing for holidays) and where there is a
need to cover work outside basic hours,
additional hours, known as ‘hours plus’ are
added to form the ‘total contract hours’.
These hours vary between 218
and 332 according to section and have two
elements; ‘committed hours’ i.e. hours
needed to deliver an agreed pattern of work,
and ‘uncommitted hours’ which are unrostered
and used for emergency work, sickness,
absence, etc. These hours have been set at a
level that assumes that only 75-80% will be
used under normal circumstances, the surplus
allowing for major emergency.
Benefits for
the Company
The trial scheme has shown
considerable benefits. Financially there
have been positive savings in all areas
where PWT was introduced, in comparison with
the lieu time arrangements, where there have
been no cost savings.
These savings range from
14.1% to 5% over the 5 per cent needed to
‘break even’ as a result of the cost of
reduced working hours.
Other benefits have been:
-
Increased job
output;
-
Vehicle and plant
maintenance carried out outside the
normal working day allowing
reductions in vehicle fleet;
-
Positive business
attitude among employees and better
co-operation;
-
More flexible and
committed workforce;
-
Improved management
control;
-
Reduced absenteeism
attributed to peer group pressure as
a result of PWT.
Benefits for
the Employee
Employees have also seen the
benefits of the scheme in the form of higher
guaranteed salary, which is reflected in
holiday and pensionable pay, more time off,
which can be arranged in bigger ‘chunks’,
and the ability to plan ahead in terms of
income and time off.
On the downside, holidays
are rostered (although there is some
flexibility built in to take time off), the
potential for overtime earnings is capped
and employees are obliged to work up to a
certain level of ‘contractual overtime’.
Despite these drawbacks,
many employees in other areas of Welsh Water
are now asking to be on the planned working
time, and the company is keen that all areas
look at its potential implementation.
* Extracted from an article on Annual
Hours by Sue Hutchinson Personnel Management
April 1993.
The consultancy work referred to in this case
study was carried out by Philip Lynch Associates
in 1991.
