The soft option - no longer

Once it was the soft option to get late projects back on schedule, but extended shift working could be a lot less attractive, thanks to the Working Time Regulations. Operatives have traditionally been the cannon fodder in the battle to regain lost time. Long hours and lost weekends have often been the price paid by blue collar workers for the managerial mistakes of their white collar cousins.

But simply stretching out the working week has never been the right answer. Going back to the days of NEDO (the Government's old economic quango), studies have always shown that productivity drops off in direct proportion to the level of overtime worked. Better for the industry to invest the effort in getting project right from the beginning of the process. As Geoff Wright, construction director of Hammerson Properties observes (page 22-23), the Germans apparently have something to teach us in this respect.

Longer hours are not ruled out by the directive, but they are militated against by the pressure of market forces in the labour market.

The basic 48-hour maximum can be extended, but only with a specific agreement with the workforce - and with the risk of them unilaterally calling time on the deal if the fancy takes them. So just imagine it, when the going really gets tough on a troubled project, the site convener can turn round and say they don't want to play anymore. Unless, of course, you'd like to improve your offer...

Is this a recipe for industrial relations unrest? Quite likely. But the flip-side may be that the regulations put some power into the hands of the operatives and does something its drafters never imagined: laying a foundation for the creation of the civilised working environment Sir John Egan passionately called for at the launch of the Task Force report.