New Duty Time Management for Police: Trial Operation in the 20th or 22nd District of Vienna?

The police aim to implement a new duty time management system. The system is intended to allow officers a maximum of 13 hours of duty at a stretch, becoming more flexible and family-friendly than before. Starting in spring 2026, a trial run will initially take place in five districts, which will then be evaluated. From 2027, the new system is to be gradually rolled out nationwide, as announced by the Secretary General of the Ministry of the Interior, Andreas Achatz, on Tuesday.

During a background discussion with journalists, Achatz pointed out that the current system has been in use for 50 years, but much has changed since then. He mentioned the internal merger of the police and gendarmerie in the early 2000s and the administrative reform of 2012 in this context. The security situation has also changed significantly, especially from 2015/16 with the Paris attacks, and crime is undergoing significant changes, with cybercrime being particularly noteworthy.

Focus on Employee Survey

Achatz also referred to an employee survey conducted in 2022/2023, where half of the workforce was not very satisfied with the current working conditions. A critical point was the lack of influence on duty roster planning. Other criticisms included the rigid system, the high number of unpredictable overtime hours, the high burden of long shifts, the lack of work-life balance, and the health burden.

Accordingly, the new system aims to improve precisely in these areas: Project leader Joachim Huber - also Deputy State Police Director in Styria - explained that the project was tackled in five working groups and that the project participants also looked at police units in other countries, including Germany, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, and the USA. Commonalities included demand-oriented planning, maximum twelve-hour shifts, performing a maximum of 30 percent of monthly working hours on weekends, exchange possibilities, and not using overtime to cover the basic needs in police work.

At Least One Free Weekend Per Month

A key point of the new duty time management emerged that in the future, a maximum of eight to 13 hours of duty per day should be performed. If employees want to work shorter hours, that should also be possible. 48 hours can be worked per month on weekends, but all employees should have at least one weekend off per month. A newly developed app is intended to make duty planning easier, complemented by an exchange platform where one shift can be swapped for another. To avoid bottlenecks or in case of additional demand, there will be regional standby services. Shifts can also be split, with a few hours break, for example, if officers are undergoing training or for childcare. Last but not least, there will be an overtime pool for which employees can volunteer.

Trial Phase in the 20th or 22nd District?

The project managers - Achatz was the client, and the person responsible is the Director General for Public Security, Franz Ruf - hope to answer many questions with the trial phase next year in five districts. Which ones are still open - Huber mentioned the affected federal states of Vienna, Lower and Upper Austria, Styria, and Vorarlberg. In Vienna, it could reportedly be Donaustadt or Brigittenau. That Vienna is likely to be the criterion for the new duty time management was apparently clear to the project managers from the start: They have been in contact with Vienna's State Police President Gerhard Pürstl from the beginning.

Achatz also clarified that it is not about saving overtime: "The new working time system is not a savings program." An increase in the number of personnel - currently around 33,000 police officers - does not seem to be planned either. The Secretary-General assumed that the overtime burden would remain about the same. They aim to compensate for staff departures. How many volunteers need to sign up for the overtime pool for it to work this way remained initially unclear. Here too, those responsible hope for insights from the trial operation. Whether and how much the new system will cost could not yet be said. However, the development of the app is definitely a starter, for which a low million amount - certainly not double-digit - was estimated.

The next point is the involvement of the staff representation. Members also sat in the project groups, and the central committee was to be informed on Tuesday afternoon. At least from Vienna, it was heard that not much about the reform had been leaked to the outside so far.

Impact on Health?

Achatz and the chief physician of the Vienna State Police Directorate, Patricia Fous-Zeiner, hope for healthier police officers through the new system. The doctor emphasized that after 17 hours of continuous work, performance significantly decreases and that this can be crucial in often life-threatening situations. She pointed out the high risk of cardiovascular diseases as well as metabolic disorders and also mentioned the danger of sleep disorders. She considered it all the more important to enable recovery times.

However, it is also clear: If an extraordinary situation - such as the terrorist attack in Vienna five years ago or the flooding in eastern Austria last year - occurs, the requirements will temporarily make adherence to the working time management difficult to impossible. Just as it is now, it was emphasized.

"A Basis for Discussion"

Martin Noschiel from the faction of socialist trade unionists (FSG), deputy chairman of the central committee, said after the meeting in the afternoon to the APA that it is a "well-intentioned proposal from the employer" that relies heavily on the voluntariness of colleagues. "This is a basis for discussion, from which I assume that many corners and edges still need to be smoothed out," said the trade unionist. "The question is how we deal with it if everyone, for example, says, I don't want to work weekends." Noschiel: "If voluntariness is put forward in good faith, we need a set of rules that avoids injustices."

Noschiel promised a constructive contribution from the staff representation. Much will depend on the practice in the trial operation, and for the time after, it was assured by the employer that the staff representation would be involved. It seems necessary and "logical" that the working system is adapted to the challenges of the time. It is important that after the trial operation, the new system is not enforced "at all costs" but that the insights gained are taken into account. "It is important to us that there are no financial losses for the colleagues," said Noschiel.

That there is skepticism, especially in Vienna, "is certainly correct," said the staff representative. The federal capital is a particular challenge, where duty roster planning cannot always be foreseen three months in advance. "There will always be ad-hoc assignments that need to be covered, and the question is what resources are available," explained Noschiel. His conclusion: "I do not see the house of cards collapsing with this proposal."

(APA/Red)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.