The European Watchdog for Industrial Relations (EIRO) has presented the results of a survey on working hours in the countries of the EU plus Norway from which it emerges that people in Eastern Europe work on average twenty annual days more than in the states of Western Europe. In particular, the workers with the longest working week are, in order, those in Latvia (43.3 hours/week), in the UK (43.1 hours/week), in Romania (41.8 hours/week), in Poland (41.5 hours/week) and in Slovenia (41.4 hours/week). Norway, Italy and Holland, by contrast, are the states with the shortest working week, respectively 38.6, 38.7 and 38.8 hours/week. Better conditions are also to be found in the “old Europe” in terms of holidays: the average for the 25-member EU is 31 days’ vacation, but Estonians, Lithuanians and Poles do not exceed 21 days (whereas in Sweden average holidays rise to 44 days, i.e. one holiday for every six working days). For further information, consult the website: http://www.eurofound.eu.int/newsroom/archive_pressrelease/pressrel_050505.htm
