Freight industry gives flexitime the thumbs-down

Alan Peat ALTHOUGH THE values of “flexitime” have been touted by the local press - with the suggestion that SA is missing out on this work-time concept - it seems it has no place in the freight industry. According to a snap survey conducted for FTW by freight industry employment specialist, Lee Botti, m.d. of Lee Botti & Associates, executives in the trade see more disadvantages than gains being made with flexible hours of employment. “They agree that it’s still a relatively new concept to SA,” said Botti, “but most of our clients in the shipping industry have already assessed it to see if it holds any value for the industry.” Most of them have come up with a negative response, according to the survey, and flexitime has not been implemented in many organisations in the freight industry. “The people in the shipping industry all stress that they are running service-orientated businesses. “It is, therefore, essential that they offer continuity of service and they all suggest that flexitime cannot serve this purpose. “In what is basically a person-to-person industry, flexitime would rather tend to dislocate communication flow.” It would also have to be a benefit to both employees and employers if it was going to be acceptable, industry executives told Botti. “It certainly has benefits for employees,” she said. “People are becoming more focused on a qualitative lifestyle where there is equal time for work and family, for example. “It is also true that many people are spending more time on hobbies. “For these reasons - or even just to avoid the increasing traffic congestion problems - flexitime could be seen as being advantageous to the employee.” But in an industry where immediate contact is required at any instant of the business day, it is not seen as beneficial to the employers, or to the industry. Not that flexitime was rejected outright, she added. “It may be more suited to administrative and information technology (IT) industries, for example, where work can be accomplished or completed irrespective of the hours.”