Occupational safety and health in Europe - state and trends 2023 
European Agency for Safety and Health at Work – EU-OSHA 36 
methodology, the OSH practitioners who were asked in ESENER seem to have a different view on time 
pressure than the workers themselves who are respondents in the LFS. 
 
Figure 15: Percentage of employed persons with working time under pressure (per country, sum of 
responses ‘Always’ and ‘Often’) – LFS Ad hoc 2019  
 
One hypothesis to explain the increased time pressure is to draw a direct connection between short 
weekly working time and more intense work; or in other words, a short weekly working time leads to 
more intensification of work or more long hours or atypical working times  (‘trading flexibility for 
effort’).38  
The analysis of EU  survey data shows a mixed picture: Firstly, ESENER  data corroborate this 
hypothesis, the three countries with highest percentage of work under time constraints — that is, Finland, 
Sweden and Denmark — all have working hours under the EU average. Secondly, LFS  data show a 
different picture; a country like Greece has the longest working hours and also reports the highest time 
pressure, the same ‘combination’ — but less extreme — applies to Austria, Cyprus and Malta. Trends  
of low or less than average working time and no time constraints are reported for Lithuania, and medium 
working time and low time constraints for Italy and Ireland.  
An analysis of EWCS data concluded 39 that in general intensity increases with long working hours, in 
enterprises with 1-19 the work intensity index (on a scale between 0 and 12) is 4.4, in larger enterprises 
with above 40 employees it is 6.3. This is in line with ESENER data that corroborate the importance of 
the size of the enterprise for time pressure and long working hours.  
Literature — from very diverse disciplines — on work inten sification poi nts to reasons for 
intensification on developments as:40 
• Economic developments, particularly the dominance of neoliberalist policies and enhanced 
competition between workers, companies and states; reduction of state influence and 
privatisation.41  
• Pressure due to substantial organisational changes, for example, introduction of short -term 
economic objectives in enterprise policies, 42 expansion into new markets or new countries, 
acquiring other enterprises or merging, being acquired, restructuring of management or of basic 
staff working conditions (contracts, working time, flexibility).43 
• Decrease of trade union influence or worker participation regarding labour relations .  
• Liberalisation of labour legislation, creation of ‘new forms of work’ and new contract types, 
beyond the permanent full-time employment.44 
• New forms of management, application of management concepts like just-in-time production or 
lean management, higher flexibility of production and higher customer orientation, 45