A large group of LO-workers on the Danish labour market has started to act as highly educated knowledge-workers. They do not just go to work for the money and they have a flexible attitude to working hours.

The traditional Danish workers, the LO-workers, no longer just go to work to earn money. And they are working more than 37 hours per week; they try to be available for their workplace in their leisure time and they do not mind working at home.  This is shown in a new analysis by The University of Roskilde (RUC) which LO has ordered, writes Berlingske Tidende.

Although the workers often find it difficult to draw a line for when their work is getting out of hand they want an even more flexible working day. In the analysis, 42 per cent of the LO-members reply that they would like to be less tied down by their working hours, and 54 per cent say that they would like to have the opportunity to work at home.

”We experience a new mega trend where the traditional LO-worker has become a part of the knowledge-society which does not distinguish sharply between work and leisure. It is an illusion to believe that we have 37 hours-working week when looking at the wage earners’ working environment. Approximately one third of LO’s members are working more than 37 hours a week and 14 per cent even reply that they often prefer to be at work rather than having off-hours,” says Tina Møller Kristensen, LO-secretary.

”The industrial worker working only for the money and rushing out of the factory port as soon as the bell sounds, is on his way out. The normal working week has been shot down in the collective agreements and today the weekly working hours varied a lot. You even have LO-members working overtime without being paid for it,” says Flemming Ibsen, labour market researcher at the University of Aalborg.

”Working life is much more important for the LO-wage earners than previously. It influences their whole lives and it means a lot to their self-esteem that they contribute quality to their work. It is positive, but also surprising that the tendency is so clear. This means that the LO-wage earners are confronted with many of the same challenges as the academics when they try to find a balance between work and leisure,” says Henrik Lund, assistant professor at RUC.