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| UK unions have warned that VW-style email restrictions might not suit other companies |
Volkswagen
has agreed to stop its Blackberry servers sending emails to some of its
employees when they are off-shift.
The
carmaker confirmed it made the move earlier this year following complaints that
staff's work and home lives were becoming blurred.
The
restriction covers employees in Germany working under trade union negotiated
contracts.
Campaigners
warned that the move would not be suitable for all companies.
A spokesman
for VW said: "We confirm that this agreement between VW and the company's
work council exists", but would not comment further.
Under the
arrangement servers stop routing emails 30 minutes after the end of employees'
shifts, and then start again 30 minutes before they return to work.
The staff
can still use their devices to make calls and the rule does not apply to senior
management.
"The
agreement was received very positively," Heinz-Joachim Thus of the VW workers council told the German newspaper Wolfsburger Allgemeine.
Spare time
The move
follows criticism of internal emails by Thierry Breton, chief executive of the
French information technology services giant, Atos. He said workers at his firm were wasting hours of their lives on internal messages both at home and at
work. He has taken the more radical step of banning internal email altogether
from 2014.
Last month
the maker of Persil washing powder, Henkel, also declared an email
"amnesty" for its workers between Christmas and New Year saying
messages should only be sent out as an emergency measure.
Industry
watchers say the moves reflect growing awareness of a problem.
"It's
bad for the individual worker's performance being online and available 24-7.
You do need downtime, you do need periods in which you can actually reflect on
something without needing instantaneously to give a reaction," said Will
Hutton, chair of the Big Innovation Centre at The Work Foundation.
"Secondly
it has a poor impact on an individual's well-being. I think that one has to
patrol quite carefully the borderline between work and non-work.
"So I
can see why some firms are taking this action, the problem is that a universal
response is impossible... but certainly we should have the capacity to be opted
out of it rather than be opted in."
Consultations
Union
officials in the UK have also cautioned other firms against repeating
Volkswagen's move without consultation.
"The
issue of employees using Blackberrys, computers and other devices out of
working time is a growing one that needs to be addressed as it can be a source
of stress," Trades Union Congress (TUC) secretary general Brendan Barber
told the BBC.
"However
other organisations will need different solutions and what works in VW may not
work elsewhere.
"By
working in partnership with their union, Volkswagen's policy will have the
support of all their employees. Where employers simply introduce policies on
their own, however well-meaning they may be, they are unlikely to be
successful."
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