Dear Sir or Madam!
I propose to amend Article 10 of the Regulation on working time in public administration bodies, which reads as follows:
Article 10
(Flexible working hours and compulsory attendance in government departments, ministries and constituent bodies)
(1) The flexible start of working hours in government departments, ministries and their constituent bodies shall be between 7.30 a.m. and 9 a.m., and the flexible end of working hours shall be between 3.30 p.m. and 5.30 p.m., or between 2.30 p.m. and 4.30 p.m. on Fridays.
(2) The compulsory attendance of a civil servant at work shall be from 9.00 a.m. to 3.30 p.m. and on Fridays until 2.30 p.m.
so that it reads:
Article 10
(Flexible working hours and compulsory attendance in government departments, ministries and constituent bodies)
(1) The flexible start of working hours in government departments, ministries and their constituent bodies shall be between 7.00 a.m. and 9.00 a.m., and the flexible end of working hours shall be between 3.00 p.m. and 5.30 p.m., or between 2.30 p.m. and 4.30 p.m. on Fridays.
(2) The compulsory attendance of a civil servant at work shall be from 9.00 a.m. to 3.00 p.m. and on Fridays until 2.30 p.m.
 
Reason:
Many civil servants working in a ministry, a constituent body of a ministry or a government department would like to start work as early as 7 a.m. in order to be able to go home earlier in the afternoon, but unfortunately, due to the provisions of Article 10 of the Regulation on working time in public administration bodies, they cannot. That would be particularly useful:
- Parents of young children who have children in nursery school, and nursery schools are open from 6am to 4pm, which means that many parents working in the civil service find it difficult to balance their work and family commitments. If they could start work at 7am, they would have their 8-hour work commitment fulfilled by 3pm, and if they had to pull out a little to accommodate the higher volume of work, they would work until 3.30pm and then quickly go and pick up their child at the nursery before it closed.
- More time for public servants to spend afternoons outdoors (exercising), which would improve their general health and well-being. It is well known that the fact that people are indoors all the time, especially in winter, contributes to their increased morbidity. In December, when the day is at its shortest, the sun sets shortly after compulsory presence at work ends under the current Working Time Regulation for public administrations, which means that these people cannot spend even half an hour in daylight time in the fresh air, which in turn leads to depressive states and thus to poorer performance and greater morbidity. This change would reduce the number of sick days.
- If a civil servant's partner works in the private sector and starts work at 7am and finishes at 3pm, the civil servant would also benefit from such working hours, as this would make it easier to balance work and family commitments (and not always have to go to the nursery to pick up the child, for example.
- Anyone who wanted to come to work later and work until later in the afternoon could still come to work later and work until later in the afternoon.
- Posts where work is carried out directly with clients would not be affected by the amendment of the above Article, since in such cases the manager can still set different or fixed arrival and departure times for work with clients (Article 12 of the Regulation on working time in civil service bodies).