Portugal is experiencing a four-day work week

Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa has launched the experiment working week It was extended to the public administration sector for four days involving private companies on a voluntary basis and then, if the experiment was to produce commendable results.

test it will last six months and will begin in 2023, however, to guarantee wage equality and follow similar experiments carried out in other countries, including those already launched in the United Kingdom and involving more than 3 thousand employees, the largest in the world. Is.

four day work week

There are many issues related to entrepreneurship and work culture on the plate. In addition to the professional performance of workers, guaranteeing equal remuneration to those who are reduced to four days a week, the rules introduced by the Portuguese government include items of analysis. new organizational model of a company, whether it is related to working in presence or done in an agile manner.

The state is prepared to provide free consulting services, but will not recognize contributions from companies that decide to become involved. Portuguese Labor Minister Ana Mendes Godinho reserves the right to extend the same model to public administration, underlining that it is a youth-oriented labor policy and aims to create a new and futuristic working model.

other tests

between 2015 and 2019Iceland 2,500 workers in the public sector were involved by conducting various tests to understand whether the 4-day work week had an impact on productivity, not being able to clearly identify them.

By June 2022, United Kingdom is experimenting with the same formula involving 3,300 employees from seventy different companies. In parallel, researchers from the University of Cambridge, Boston College and the University of Oxford are measuring the effects of work models on productivity. At the end of November 2022, companies that have signed up for the trials will decide whether to keep the existing framework or come back throughout the week.

In February 2022, Belgium approved a similar reform, which allows workers to focus on their work schedule four days a week. Similar experiments have been conducted – albeit with different intentions and parameters, in United Arab EmiratesIn Scotland and in use, There are also companies that operate alone without waiting for government intervention: Microsoft Experimented in a limited 4-day work week to its offices in Japan in 2019, it manages to measure a near 40% increase in productivity.

situation in italy

mid october intesa sanpaolo Proposed to introduce a four-day working week to reduce the 37.5 hours stipulated by the contract for the traditional working week to 36 hours of work and to guarantee equal remunerative services. The unions accepted the proposal with a certain coolness, reserving the right to better understand what its advantages and disadvantages are.

In Italy the debate on the short week is renewed cyclically without ever useful political and trade union conditions for its implementation, moreover, today it should be extended to include smart working Which has opened conceptual doors for a different working model among employees that can better satisfy professional and personal needs.