The 4-Day Week
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A carefully designed four-day week could be introduced in the UK immediately and be affordable for most firms with more than 50 workers, a thinktank has said.
A report by Autonomy – which is campaigning for a shorter working week without loss of pay – said the majority of 50,000 firms studied would be able to cope with the change through higher productivity or by raising prices.
Japanese lawmakers are debating whether companies should offer staff a three-day weekend, hoping that more relaxed workers will be less at risk of “karoshi,” or death by overwork.
“I would say that rather than being a possibility at companies, it should be a necessity,” Teruo Sakurada, a professor of business at Osaka’s Hannan University, told DW. “These changes mean that Japan has to be far more efficient in the future, and we need to find ways to improve both working conditions for people and the amount of leisure time that they can enjoy”
https://www.dw.com/en/japan-mulls-four-day-working-week-amid-covid-pandemic/a-56384335
In recent decades, Japan has shifted from an economy that is based on manufacturing to one that is more reliant on the service sector and financial services. That trend will continue as the nation’s population continues to contract from 126.5 million at present to possibly as few as 83 million by the end of the century.
The Indian government is considering finalising the rules for a new set of labour codes that could provide companies with the flexibility of reducing the total number of working days in a week to four. However, it would mean that employees will have to work 12 hours in a shift, instead of the standard nine. The 48 hours-per-week limit, however, shall remain. “It is sacrosanct,” maintained Mr Chandra, India’s Labour and Employment Secretary
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/india-four-day-work-week-new-labour-code-b1800331.html
Spain could become one of the first countries in the world to trial the four-day working week after the government agreed to launch a modest pilot project for companies interested in the idea.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/15/spain-to-launch-trial-of-four-day-working-week
Another push for shorter working hours
the introduction of a four-day working week with no loss of pay would aid efforts in reducing Britain’s carbon footprint, with a possible reduction of 127 million tonnes per year by 2025.
Matthew Culbert
Keymaster
So they could do it by an increased rate of exploitation. Didn’t we know?Exactly!!! Capitalism can not be reformed or beautify. A society of non wages at all and voluntary labor is the best solution
Japan unveiled its annual economic policy guidelines, which include new recommendations that companies permit their staff to opt to work four days a week instead of the typical five.
https://www.dw.com/en/japan-work-life-balance/a-57989053
One of the biggest issues for young people today is unpaid overtime, known as “service overtime.”
Trials of a four-day week in Iceland were an “overwhelming success” and led to many workers moving to shorter hours, researchers have said. The trials, in which workers were paid the same amount for shorter hours, took place between 2015 and 2019.
Productivity remained the same or improved in the majority of workplaces, researchers said.
86% of Iceland’s workforce have either moved to shorter hours for the same pay, or will gain the right to, the researchers said.
A US article calling for the 4-day week
We Work Too Damn Much. Let’s Demand a 4-Day Workweek by 2022.
How many more workers are they going to laid off to dump all the works in one employee ? There is a shortage of labors on the restaurant industry because many workers are refusing to do the works of three or more workers in one day and they are looking for works in others sectors of the capitalist society
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/24/four-day-workweek-legislationSenator Mark Takano has introduced a bill in California for four days work
A lengthy if dated philosophical essay from Russell.
In Praise of Idleness
https://harpers.org/archive/1932/10/in-praise-of-idleness/https://www.marxists.org/archive/lafargue/1883/lazy/
Also Paul Lafargue
The right to be lazyI’m sure Blair & co, (Labour’s Keir Starmer* now) as he did the EU Working Hours Directive, on working hours will undermine any attempt to reduce the working week.
If it just means a 12 hour working day then what’s the point? With a 12 hour day, most workers would need 3 days off simply to recover!
Regardless of the environmental issue! #CapitalismKills
Abolish the wages system!*Who needs enemies with friends like Labour.
Besides working 12 or 16 hours a day workers must perform the job of three or four workers at the same time
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