BEERG Newsletter - Future Work: A case for a four-day week?

The Covid pandemic saw millions of workers forced to work from home (WFH) as governments locked down economies to contain the spread of the virus. A debate now rages over trying to calibrate a new balance between remote work and office-based work, with some employers pushing hard for a return to the office, with employees who have discovered the work/life balance of WFH pushing back hard.

What this debate often leaves out of account is that many millions of workers were still obliged to turn up in person during the pandemic. Their work required them to be “on-hand”. In many European countries, there are now discussion on new working time flexibilities for such workers. One such discussion centres on the introduction of a four-day week, with or without a reduction in overall hours worked and what such reductions would mean for pay levels. 

At the same time Europe faces a growing labour shortage which will only get worse in the years ahead as the population ages. Migration to fill labour market shortages runs into political barriers, especially if the migrants come from ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds that many see as incompatible with existing European norms. In such circumstances, reductions in working hours only add to labour market difficulties. Developments in technology may be part of the answer, but we are not there yet.

Dr. Anna Kwiatkiewicz, a senior social affairs advisor with BusinessEurope, has produced a comprehensive paper on the debate about working time flexibility across Europe, especially the debate on a four-day week. You can find the paper HERE.  Anna rightly concludes that working time is best regulated through discussions between the social partners and that prescriptive legislative solutions should be avoided.