Spain to become first European nation to trial run four-day work week: Report

Spain is all set to launch a pilot project for companies where they can experiment the newly proposed four-day working session in a week. If accepted, Spain would become the first European country to trial run a four-day working week plan. The idea is aimed at increasing productivity of the employees, improving health care and the environment. The plan was first proposed by a Spanish leftwing party Mas Pais, which suggested the government to promote a pilot project to reduce working hours of ordinary employees. 

“With the 4-day session. We have opened an authentic period debate. That always arouses controversy, because it opens a gap. What else is more important to politics than life time?. We live sad, drowned and exhausted. Our production model has expired, and to improve it we propose reducing the working day to 32 hours a week and putting mental health at the center of the political agenda,” Inigo Errejon of Mas Pais said on Twitter.

What's in the plan?

Spain was one of the first countries in Europe to adopt an eight-hour workday plan, which later became a norm in other European countries as well. According to The Guardian, the pilot project could start as early as September 2021. Mas Pais has proposed a three-year plan that would also allow companies to seek support from the government to cover the costs of implementation in the initial period. A Spanish software company already has the four-day working week plan in place and Mas Pais suggests that employees at the firm have become more productive than before.

To improve productivity of employees by reducing working hours is not a new idea as several developed countries already have measures in place that require companies to set a weekly working time-limit. For instance, in countries such as Netherlands, Germany, France, Norway, and Denmark, employees work for an average of less than 30 hours a week. Spain is not so far away as an ordinary employee in the country is required to work for only 32 hours a week, which is way less than the 60 hours of work a week in some of the developing nations. 

(Image Credit: AP)