Uses of Time

On Tuesday, September 29, the Annual Conference The future of working time was held. The Conference included an opening conference, a dialogue on co-responsible work-life balance and the presentation of the Barcelona Award for Innovative Company in Work-Life Balance and Time 2019.

The Annual Conference, initially scheduled for March 2020, had to be postponed due to the confinement situation caused by Covid-19. Finally, it was decided to celebrate it on September 29 virtually and it was attended by more than 250 people.

The welcome was made by Jaume Collboni, First Deputy Mayor of the Economy, Labor, Competitiveness and Finance of the Barcelona City Council, who stated that teleworking has come to stay, inviting all key actors related to the uses of time to continue to innovate and transform reality, an objective that the Barcelona City Council fully shares and supports. He highlighted the new Pact for Mobility, an initiative that is intricately linked to the uses of time and that should mean a qualitative leap when it comes to organizing time.

Then, Félix Ortega, General Director of Barcelona Activa, assured that Barcelona Activa is committed to promoting the new culture of working time. He recalled that the crisis generated by Covid-19 has placed us before a different challenge when it comes to organizing ourselves and organizing time. Ortega stressed that companies must be involved in this new form of organization, being responsible and providing benefits to both the productive fabric and workers, that is why Barcelona Activa promotes policies to influence this awareness and has developed, throughout of its trajectory, several resources destined to this objective.

Finally, Sara Berbel, Municipal Manager of the Barcelona City Council, highlighted the political will of the City Council to be a pioneer in the good organization of time. He recalled that the NUST Network was created in 2006, which indicates that the consistory has been working in this line for more than a decade. This is also why there is the Time Pact, and a whole series of programs that promote the improvement of the use of time, such as the NUST Network's Mentoring Program in Organization of Working Time. However, Berbel pointed out that we still have the longest and most rigid hours in Europe, leading to low productivity and a lack of sleep. Now that the teleworking root of Covid-19 has spread, the Municipal Manager assured that it is time to think of a good remote work strategy that is sustainable and does not generate inequalities.

This was followed by the inaugural conference Organization of working time in the digital age by Oscar Vargas, Eurofound researcher. Vargas began his presentation by praising the Barcelona City Council, stating that it is an exceptional fact that a local administration prioritizes these issues -which in turn are of great importance-. The researcher spoke about the effects of teleworking and new information and communication technologies in the workplace.

Thanks to ICT, work is more flexible: time and space disappear, you can work from anywhere and at any time. This fact offers a greater degree of autonomy to the worker, while increasing productivity and reconciliation between work and personal life.

Vargas presented the various types of remote work, warning that, although they offer a wide list of advantages, they also have drawbacks. For this reason, he insisted that the implementation of the right to digital disconnection and the promotion of gender equality must be considered. For further details, access the video of the Conference and the presentation of Oscar Vargas in pdf.

The event included a space for dialogue on co-responsible conciliation in companies, with the participation of Paco Abril, researcher of the European project "Men in care. Workplace support for caring masculinity", and three companies belonging to the NUST Network (New Social Uses del Tiempo) that promote co-responsibility: RACC, Unión de Mutuas and Penguin Random House.

The main conclusions of the dialogue were that in order to continue advancing towards a co-responsible conciliation, it is necessary to reduce the wage gap, promote an equitable family model, promote new masculinities (male caregivers), and expand state and business support in these matters.

The three participating companies shared the good practices with which they work, as well as the benefits that conciliation measures have for both workers and companies. For further details, access the video of the Conference.

The event ended with the delivery of the Barcelona Award for the Innovative Company in Conciliation and Time 2019, headed by Álvaro Porro, Commissioner for Social Economy, Local Development and Food Policy of the Barcelona City Council, and Sara Berbel. For further details, access the news about the Award.

Porro stated that the Conference had been very stimulating and inspiring, as it became clear that more and more organizations are emphasizing that both men and women use measures that allow them to reconcile work and personal life and, as a consequence, advance towards gender co-responsibility.