Personal working time adjustment

General framework

Employees working in a company that has set up flexible working hours (flexitime) can ask for their working time to be adjusted in order to make it easier for them to attend training courses.

Thanks to flexitime, which allows for flexible working time management, the employee can adjust his or her working hours and daily working time, according to his or her personal convenience, subject to certain conditions.

The working time adjustment of the employee should be made in compliance with:

• the requirements of the department and the justified wishes of other employees,
• the legal limits for working time: apart from legal exceptions, working time cannot exceed 10 hours per day or 48 hours per week,
• pre-defined rules in the context of flexitime regulations of the company.

Recommendations

Besides the general legal framework, recommendations are proposed to the parties involved in managing regulations for flexible working hours to address learners’ needs more effectively.

Regulations for flexible working hours may mean that:

• the management of working hour deficits noted with regard to the learners at the end of the reference period may be subject to specific solutions. In this case, the maximum deficit amount for each reference period can be increased for the employee undertaking training, and similarly the deadline for clearing the deficits can be extended,
• core time during which learners must be present can be adjusted on an individual basis, according to their specific constraints,
• the total range (start and end of working hours) including core and flexible time can be extended beyond the normal limits.

Refusal by the employer

As far as companies are concerned, it may be stipulated that those who:

• either refuse to introduce a flexible adjustment of working time for learners,
• or refuse to adjust hours in the way intended by this measure,

provide reasons for their refusal in terms of departmental needs or requirements for the efficient organisation of the company.

An internal corporate body may be set up in agreement with staff representatives in order to settle any disagreements relating to the assessment of the grounds cited in respect of flexitime.

Limits of the system

Departmental needs and requirements for the efficient organisation of the company may be used to oppose the employee's or staff representatives' request to benefit either individually or collectively from a flexitime system. It is therefore not an absolute right, but merely a possibility.