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CHAPTER 4.3 HOURS OF WORK

4.3.1 "Hours worked” has been defined in ILO conventions in terms of the time when (paid) employees were at the disposal of an employer; that is, when available to receive work orders from an employer or person in authority, with hours worked covering all jobs. During such periods of availability, workers are expected to be ready to work if work is possible, requested or necessary. This general concept is made meaningful for the self-employed if it is taken to mean time when the self-employed are available to do their work, such as being at the disposal of clients, ready to receive purchase orders or available to make sales, etc. Further information is available in the ILO Resolution concerning the measurement of working time (Eighteenth International Conference of Labour Statisticians, 2008).

4.3.2 Measuring the levels and trends of hours worked for different groups of employed persons is important in order to monitor working and living conditions, as well as analysing economic cycles. Information on hours of work enables various analytical insights such as: classification of employed persons into full-time and part-time status; the identification of underemployed persons; and the creation of aggregate monthly hours worked estimates. The general notion of hours of work encompasses a number of related concepts: hours usually worked; hours actually worked; hours paid for; and normal hours of work.


HOURS USUALLY WORKED

4.3.3 Hours usually worked is the typical number of hours worked in a job for a short reference period (such as one week) that is representative of a longer reference period (eg. a month, quarter, season or year). Usual hours may differ from actual hours worked at a given time if employed people are away from work due to illness, vacation, strike, a change of job or other reasons, or are at work for more hours than normal due to overtime, extra shifts, etc.

4.3.4 When analysing usual hours worked, consideration should be given to appreciate the different perceptions respondents may have when reporting the typical hours they work. The ILO guidelines say that "the typical value may be the modal (most frequently occurring) value of the distribution of hours actually worked per short period over the long observation period, where meaningful." However, it is also possible that respondents average their actual hours worked over a long reference period to derive a typical value for the shorter period.

4.3.5 Measures of hours usually worked (in all jobs) are available from: the Labour Force Survey; and Labour Force Survey supplementary surveys, such as Underemployed Workers, Employee Earnings, Benefits and Trade Union Membership (EEBTUM), Forms of Employment, and Working Time Arrangements. Measures of usual hours of work are not available from ABS business surveys, and are not collected in the Census of Population and Housing.


HOURS ACTUALLY WORKED

4.3.6 International resolutions relating to actual hours worked adopted by the Eighteenth International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) in 2008 refer to wage and salaried employees. There are no international recommendations relating to actual hours worked for all categories of the employed population. However the ILO, in its manual 'Surveys of Economically Active Population, Employment, Unemployment and Underemployment' suggests that actual hours worked in a given job should be defined to cover all types of employment in labour force surveys. Hours actually worked is the time spent in a job for the performance of activities that contribute to the production of goods and services during a specified short or long reference period.

4.3.7 According to the ILO resolution, actual hours of work measured within the System of National Accounts production boundary includes all time spent directly on, and in relation to, productive activities; down time; and resting time such as:

• time spent in addition to hours worked during normal periods of work (including overtime);
• time spent at the place of work on activities such as the preparation of the workplace, repairs and maintenance, preparation and cleaning of tools, and the preparation of receipts, time sheets and reports;
• time spent at the place of work waiting or standing by due to machinery or process breakdown, accident, lack of supplies or power or internet access, etc; and
• time corresponding to short rest periods (resting time) including tea and coffee breaks or prayer breaks.

• hours paid for but not worked such as paid annual leave, public holidays or paid sick leave;
• meal breaks; and
• for paid employment, time spent on travel to and from work when no productive activity for the job is performed (even when paid by the employer).

• The level of the aggregate monthly hours worked (seasonally adjusted) series is consistent with the level of the annual benchmarks, and
• The movements in the series are consistent with the movements in the seasonally adjusted actual hours worked in the reference week series.

• includes time paid but not worked such as paid annual leave, paid public holidays and certain absences such as paid sick leave; and
• excludes time worked but not paid by the employer, such as unpaid overtime, and absences that are not paid by the employer, such as unpaid educational leave or maternity leave that is paid through transfers by government from social security systems.
  

• ordinary time hours paid for - defined as the award, standard or agreed hours of work paid for at the ordinary rate. Ordinary hours paid for include: stand-by or reporting time hours which are part of standard hours of work, and hours of paid annual leave, paid sick leave and long service leave taken during the reference period. Ordinary time hours paid for at penalty rates (e.g. for shift work) are not converted to their ordinary time equivalent; and
• overtime hours paid for - defined as hours paid for in excess of award, standard or agreed hours of work, at both standard and penalty rates.