The transformations of collective working. The consequences of work time reducing in a public service [Les transformations du travail collectif l'inpact de l'aménagement et de la réducton du temps de travail dans une administration]

Résumé En

The negotiation on time organisation, in French companies or administrations, towards the new legal limit of 35 hours per week, once finished, what type of effects on work organisation may be observed ? It is the question which we examine here, making the assumption of a historical convergence between two movements : the reduction of the working time, on one side, and the erosion of collective work, on the other. The global negotiation has been carried out, in the administrations (case which we study here), without any creation of employment. Thus a variety of microsolutions have been implemented to cope with the situation. However by reviewing those various arrangements one striking element has appeared : the abandoned parts of work almost always related to collective work. Either collective work was rationalised and reduced to a minimum, or the amount of time devoted to this type of work was the most reduced, or the reorganisation caused by this time reduction led to less stable and more transitory teams. It should be underlined, in addition, that, in many cases, this reduction was accompanied by a significant transformation of the forms of co-operation. The co-operation often became more formal and more abstract. Moreover, the work intensification which one can observe resulted also from this dynamics of reduction and abstraction of collective work.