Spain is set to become one of the first countries to try the 32-hour four-day working work, after the government accepted a proposal to test out the idea.
The small, left-wing party Más País, which pitched the idea to the government, is aiming to have around 200 companies participate, under a three-year, €50m project.
“With these figures, we calculate that we could have around 200 companies participate, with a total of anywhere from 3,000 to 6,000 workers,” said Héctor Tejero of Más País. “The only red lines are that we want to see a true reduction of working hours and no loss of salary or jobs.”
According to a Guardian report, the pilot could get under way by autumn (which begins in September in Europe). “Spain will be the first country to undertake a trial of this magnitude,” Tejero was quoted as saying. “A pilot project like this hasn’t been undertaken anywhere in the world.”
The report cited a source with Spain’s industry ministry saying talks over the pilot project were in their initial stages, with everything still up for debate.
The idea of a 4-day-week has already been gaining momentum in Spain, under the hashtag #SemanaLaboral4Días. The ‘campaña 4 suma’ suggests that both companies and schools adopt the measure, which can be implemented either by reducing the amount of working hours or cutting a day altogether. Their website says “Our proposal is that the 4-day work week be for everyone. For workers, but also for schools, universities and public administrations and any other institution.”
In 2019, Microsoft Japan trialled the four-day week and saw productivity go up 39.9 per cent even as the company saved on electricity and paper consumption. Both employer and employees alike were thrilled, with the latter having a 94 per cent approval rating of the measures.
To implement the policy, all Fridays were closed for work in August, and full-time employees were given special paid leave. Since the fewer days left lesser time for meetings, Microsoft says they made use of their in-house collaboration tool, Microsoft Teams, to reduce face-time and increase online meeting—resulting in a 21 per cent increase in the number of video conferences.
In their report on the experiment, Microsoft says that while the number of working days went down by 25.4 per cent, the number of pages printed went down by 58.7 per cent while electricity consumption also went down by 23.1 per cent—a positive move for both the environment and the company's expenses.
In February, the draft of India’s new labour rules also included a provision to allow companies to reduce the number of working days in a week to four even as it allowed working hours to go up from 10.5 to 12.
Whether the idea can catch on in India remains to question: A 2018 study by the International Labour Organisation found that South Asians worked among the longest hours a week in the world, at 46.4. Indians worked 48 hours a week, among the highest in the region (but behind Nepal, where the average was 54 hours).