France, Germany, Great Britain: The organization of working time in large retail food stores

In France, Germany and Great Britain, large-scale food retailers have incre ased working-time flexibility by the use of part-time work and precarious f orms of employment. There are however considerable differences between coun tries in the proportion of part-timers, in weekly working time and in the v ariability and predictability of work schedules. On the basis of case studi es carried out in each of the three countries, the authors argue that the m anagement of working time is heavily influenced by the domestic division of labour as well as by the prevailing legal and institutional norms.