Split shifts and the fragmentation of working lives

Split shifts are a working time model in which the workday is interrupted by one or more hours of an unpaid break. In Austria, 12% of the workforce work split shifts primarily in the female-dominated service sectors. Split shifts can imply long total workdays, involving alternating shifts of paid and unpaid work (care work, domestic work) and multiple travel times. Yet little is known about how workers experience and organise their everyday lives shaped by split shifts. The proposed research project aims to provide a pioneering comprehensive study of split-shift work, studying them on three levels: the worker level, the organisation level, and the level of legal and political regulation. The main research questions are: (1) How do split-shift workers experience and organise split shifts in their everyday lives; how do they integrate paid work, unpaid work, and non-work time? (2) Why and how do companies and other employing organisations use split shifts? (3) How are split shifts regulated and bargained on the legal and social partnership level? The project will focus on two service sectors in Austria were split shifts are widespread: the cleaning sector and the elderly care sector. The research questions will be investigated by a large qualitative study within the methodology of grounded theory. It will comprise interviews and participant observation with split shift workers, case studies of cleaning companies and care providers, analyses of collective agreements and other documents, and interviews with social partners (employer and employee representatives) and other sector stakeholders. In addition, the study will include one of the first comprehensive quantitative data analyses on split shifts based on new data from Statistics Austria. In order to compare the situation in Austria with other ways to organise split shifts, two international case studies will be conducted: These regard (1) a successful transition from split-shift work outside office hours to a pattern of uninterrupted daytime work that took place in the Norwegian cleaning sector; and (2) the abolition of split shifts in public elderly care which the Swedish municipality of Norrköping implemented in 2015. The research will provide important contributions to current discussions on the sociology of work, emphasizing the position that both paid employment and unpaid work need to be addressed in work research. Furthermore, the project aims to provide a scientific basis for policy-making with regard to the regulation and design of split shifts.

SPLIT SHIFTS AND THE FRAGMENTATION OF WORKING LIVES (SPLITWORK) For 12 percent of workers in Austria, the workday is interrupted. One reason are split shifts. This is a work schedule in which the workday is divided into two shifts - often at the margins of the day - by an unpaid interruption. For example, employees work a few hours in the morning, then go home, and return to work in the late afternoon and evening. In between, they do housework, care for children, run errands, or rest to gather strength for the evening shift. Split shifts are common in office cleaning, elderly care, restaurants, and among public transportation drivers, among other sectors. The SPLITWORK project conducted an in-depth examination of split shifts in the cleaning sector in Austria and Norway, as well as in domiciliary elderly care in Austria and Sweden. To this end, the research primarily involved qualitative studies in cleaning companies and care facilities. The researchers conducted interviews with employees, works council members, managers, employee and employer representatives, and sector experts. In addition, they analyzed and compared collective agreements and accompanied employees in their daily work through participant observation. The results show that while the break between two shifts is technically unpaid time off, employees do not experience it as it as true leisure time. During this period, they must remain on standby to leave for the evening shift at the right time. Although there are often no full-time positions in nursing and cleaning, even with split shifts, the entire day is structured around paid work. Because employees both get up early and go to bed late, they face significant restrictions on their social lives and rest. Some employees see certain advantages in split shifts-such as being able to hand over childcare in the evening or to run errands during the day. For many, though split shifts entail profound disruptions to childcare and family life- to the extent that some cleaners see their children almost exclusively on weekends. In Norway, the cleaning industry has been shifting heavily toward daytime cleaning for many years: employees then work without split shifts and during regular business hours. In Austria, several initiatives were launched in connection with the SPLITWORK project to support daytime cleaning. In Sweden, efforts are increasingly being made to phase out split shifts in municipal elder care-however, according to the project findings, this cannot be achieved without incurring additional costs. The project concludes that split shifts cannot be easily avoided everywhere-but in some areas, a reduction or elimination would be possible. Furthermore, as the analysis of collective bargaining agreements shows, split shifts can be actively shaped and designed - for example, in terms of their frequency or shift length.