Uses of Time

»During the 23rd October Time Use Week event, which took place at BIZ Barcelona, ​​​​three companies from the NUST Network - Network of companies for a new working time - (Mercabarna, ITEREM and ACEFAT) shared their good practices in the application of measures to improve time management.

»Barcelona City Council also participated in the presentation of the tools for more rational and co-responsible time management that it offers to the social and productive organisations of the city.

The third day of this year's Time Use Week, on 23rd October, was aimed at social and economic stakeholders, with the central theme being the rationalisation of working time. This included debates on the advantages and critical factors for implementing the reduction of the working day in SMEs with experts and representatives of unions and employers' associations, the presentation of new developments in Catalan legislation on the management of working time with the participation of the Labour Relations Council of Catalonia, and the presentation of examples of successful transformations in the management of working time by companies from the NUST Network - Network of companies for a new working time.

After reflection and debate with experts and social and economic agents on the challenges of reducing the working day for SMEs, the tools that Barcelona City Council and the Economic Development Agency of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area offer to incorporate more equal and co-responsible uses of time in companies were presented by Laura de Caralt, an officer from the Feminism and LGTBI Department and Time Policies at the Barcelona City Council, who highlighted the Equality and Time Business Advisory Service, as well as the grants, studies and time dossiers, among other services that Barcelona City Council makes available to organisations that wish to improve their time management. She also mentioned the specific training offered by Barcelona Activa for companies.

Following the panel discussion on progress in the right to time in Catalonia, a session took place where companies from the NUST Network presented their success stories in the application of time management measures, with a prior introduction by Maria José Blanco, Head of Strategic Employment Plans at Barcelona Activa, who presented the Barcelona Agreement for Quality Employment, an initiative that promotes this type of measures to improve time management and job quality.

On the one hand, Marta Rodríguez Martín, Director of Organization, People and Culture at Mercabarna, presented measures such as reduction (37.5 hours per week) and time compaction, the time bank for workers, the possibility of teleworking as well as extended leaves for birth, visits to doctors or for taking exams that their staff can take, as examples of measures for better time organization implemented in her company.

Next, Susana Pascual García, Director of Continuous Improvement and Sustainability at ACEFAT, shared the time management measures incorporated into her company's integrated personal and work-life policy, highlighting its digital disconnection decalogue and the compacted schedule from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Finally, Ana Pérez Clemente, BPM Consultant at ITEREM, explained the company's good practices in terms of work and personal time management, highlighting what is considered its "star" measure: the 32.5-hour work week. She also explained how the organisation provides workers with other measures such as flexible entry and exit times and unlimited lunch breaks, or holidays adapted to their needs.

Both ACEFAT and ITEREM received the Barcelona Award for Innovative Companies in Work-life balance and Time in 2019, for their practices beyond conciliation to promote co-responsibility between men and women.

The participants also wanted to highlight the importance of adapting work time management measures to the idiosyncrasies of the company and the specific needs of workers, avoiding a single methodology for designing and implementing work time organisation measures.

Likewise, they highlighted the importance of being part of the NUST Network, as a city project that generates shared spaces with companies, in which they can exchange experiences and good practices, focusing on those measures that have been successfully implemented in their organizations, but also putting on the table the difficulties that condition the development and implementation of measures for a more efficient management of working time.

The conference showed inspiring examples for a new work culture and healthier time uses for organizations and companies in the city, one of the main objectives of the Time Agreement and the NUST Network, - Network of companies for a new working time, which also encourages the participation of the organizations affiliated to the Network in forums, conferences and other events, such as this at the Time Use Week, to facilitate the exchange of good practices and their dissemination as reference models.