Despite the recent crises and increasing global competition, Europe continues to be the guide in terms of working hours in other matters, as in the past. While China continues to record the typical working hours of the last century in the eyes of Europeans and the United States, it is not only reducing but lengthening its hours, the Old Continent four-day work week.
Although the European economies start from very different realities when it comes to north-south coordinates, as in matters of deficit or public debt. same not working German or a Swedish that one Italian or a Hellenic and differences in working hours can accumulate for up to two months. While discussions on how to take advantage of the developments continue, productivity to work less, it finds its way both among those condescendingly called PIGS and among the continent’s so-called locomotives.
Germany – Industry leads the discussion
Inside Germany strong union of metalworkers, IG Metall, this year, opened the discussion by bringing up the demand to work four days a week without any salary cuts. a model in 1993 It was founded by automotive giant Volkswagen in exchange for no compromise on staff, but in this case that meant cutting wages. Ten years later, it was back to the five-working day schedule.
With 2.21 million members, IG Metall is now considering two options: fuck off. 40 to 32 hours per week or distribute the same number of hours, but within four days. In either case, the salary will not be touched.
Both options are rejected by the employer. Not just from the automotive industry, but from all business activity. Germany, like other European countries, is currently facing a serious problem: in all sectors, from industry to accommodation, in a healthy labor market – 5.7% unemployment– and with a record active labor population in a country of 84.4 million inhabitants – about 45 million people. He thinks that cutting working hours will worsen this situation. protectoragainst the opinion of the unions. Marina Ferrer’s reports.
Italy – stagnant as in Spain
Inside Italy Reducing working hours is an issue that has been discussed many times in recent years. Despite this, there has been no significant change in Italian law recently.
However, that may soon change. In fact, some recent research into the benefits of reducing working hours has rekindled the debate. However, Italian unions have recently argued that the possibility of adopting this measure should work with business.
If existing legislation is contested, a 1997 law would need to be amended and then partially re-enacted in 2003. This reveals that the average working day for full-time contracts in Italy is 40 hours. In collective agreements, the maximum period is the period determined by a European directive stating that 48 hours cannot be exceeded. Reported by Irene Savio.
France – Distribute 35 hours of work over four days
The 4 days-a-week practice is also gaining ground in France, which split from its European neighbors in 1998, which fixed the weekly working time in 1998. 35 hours. According to data from the Ministry of Labour, nearly 10,000 French employees organize their weekly schedules as four working days and three days off. In most of these cases, these are private companies piloting this measure, either by deploying the same 35 hours over four days, or by working 32 hours a week.
metropolitan municipality lionsLed by the Greens, it announced that as of September, more than half of its 9,600 public servants will rehearse the 4-day week voluntarily. The 35-hour work may be split into 4 working days, 4 and a half or 4 other 5-day working weeks each.
Emmanuel Macron’s Government was also interested in this fashionable policy in Europe, but the measure of testing it reflected the contradictions of a Manager who wanted to be modern, but at the same time considered it necessary to increase working hours in France. . So he encouraged a 4-day-a-week trial at an Urssaf office in northern France, but increased the time worked to 36 hours. But the idea did not cause anger among the officials of this Social Security agency, and few agreed with it. reported Enric Bonet.
United Kingdom – hopeful for 4-day pilot program
According to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the average working day in the UK is 36.7 hours per week. That’s half an hour less than twenty years ago, when the average was 37.2 hours a week. By law, British employees cannot work more than 48 hours a week unless expressly requested, while the limit for under 18s is 40 hours.
Despite the fact that the average working day has hardly changed in recent years, more and more industries in the UK are betting on four-day working weeks after recording good results. pilot project It was launched in June last year for a period of six months. 92% of companies include banks, online stores, Digital Marketing and even a fish and chips restaurant decided to keep the reduced 32-hour day after testing.
The main reason for this is that although it reduced the working hours of its employees by 20% without making any changes in their wages, there was no decrease in productivity and the stress level of the employees was more than 100. 2,900 workers affected reduced by the program in more than 70% of cases. Reports Lucas Font.