The First Steps Towards European Cooperation – EURO-TZA

The First Steps Towards European Cooperation – EURO-TZA

When my Robert Schuman Fellowship at the European Parliament in Luxembourg came to an end in 1987, I had gained one thing above all: a European perspective on the world of work.

During my time in Luxembourg, I had become aware that the challenges surrounding part-time work and job sharing were not a specifically German phenomenon. In many European countries, researchers, businesses, organisations and political institutions were looking for new ways of making work more flexible while, at the same time, creating employment opportunities. Each country approached the issue in its own way, with its own resources and priorities.

It became increasingly clear to me that if job sharing was to have a future in Europe, more was needed than individual research projects. We needed people who could exchange knowledge, share experiences and learn from one another. A platform. A network.

The only question was: who would build it?

After my time at the European Parliament in Luxembourg, I returned full of ideas – and full of questions. I had seen how differently European countries approached part-time work, labour market policy and new forms of work organisation. And I had realised that interest in job sharing was greater than I had ever imagined.

But interest alone is not enough. Neither is research on its own.

If job sharing was to become better known across Europe, we needed people who could gather information, exchange experiences, establish contacts and initiate new projects. A platform for everyone working on qualified part-time employment – from academia, business, politics and the trade unions. That was how the idea of an association began to take shape.

Back in Germany – and Many Open Questions

Today, setting up an association can often be done within a matter of days. In 1987, things were very different. There was no internet, no email and no social media. Anyone wanting to bring people together for a joint project had to write letters, make telephone calls or travel to meetings in person. That was exactly what I did.

After returning from Luxembourg, I held numerous conversations with researchers, institutions and people interested in new working-time models. The same questions kept coming up: What should an association aim to achieve? How could job sharing become better known in Germany and across Europe? How could research and practice be brought together? And how could genuine European exchange be created?

The more conversations we had, the clearer it became: this was about much more than job sharing. It was about the future of work.

Europäische Kooperation zur Förderung neuer Formen der Teilzeitarbeit e.V. (Job-Splitting, Job-Sharing, Split-Level-Sharing, Job-Pairing)

The Articles of Association – Many Hours of Discussion for Just a Few Pages One of the most important tasks was drawing up the articles of association. Today, these few pages may look rather inconspicuous in a folder. Back then, every paragraph represented intensive discussion.

We considered what role the association should play and what long-term objectives it should pursue. It was important to us that the association should not merely collect information, but actively help to bring about change.

Promoting new forms of part-time work was to take place on several levels: academic, social, labour-market policy, organisational – and above all, European.

Step by step, this developed into the articles of association of what would later become EURO-TZA e.V.

A Letter from London

While we were working on the wording in Oldenburg, I began receiving signs that Europe was already thinking along with us.

I had met Jo during my time at the European Parliament. She was also a stagiaire there – an engaged woman from London who was working on labour market policy issues.

On 21 April 1987, she wrote me a letter that I still have today. It read – translated into English:

“… I am very interested in jobsharing, but here in England it is now called job-splitting. I have to organise conferences on this subject. May I be the English woman – have you already found someone for England? … If not, may I help? Please write to me about the structures – if I can help you with job-sharing …”

(Jo from London)

I had to smile when I first read this letter. And I still smile when I hold it in my hands today. Not because of Jo’s German, but because of the energy contained in those few lines.

Here was someone who did not want to wait. Someone who wanted to get involved. Someone who wanted to play a role.

Letters like this meant a great deal to me. They showed that the idea of a European network did not exist only in my head.

During my time in Luxembourg, contacts had developed with people in Ireland, England, France, Greece, Denmark, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. Slowly, something was beginning to take shape – long before social media or digital platforms existed.