In February, the Dominican Republic will grow to be the primary Caribbean nation to check a four-day work week, following related trials in international locations such because the United Kingdom.
The six-month pilot shall be voluntary for corporations and won’t contain a pay minimize for collaborating staff.
Rising requires a shorter work week have stemmed from COVID-19-era discussions and anecdotes that lengthy and in-person work hours don’t essentially assure larger productiveness.
So what’s the four-day work week trial within the Dominican Republic, and has it had success elsewhere?
What’s the Dominican Republic’s four-day work week trial?
Starting in February, organisations within the Caribbean nation can select whether or not to implement a six-month-long trial of a four-day work week.
The usual week will drop to 36 hours from 44 hours, usually working from Monday via to Thursday. Staff will proceed to earn the identical salaries.
Among the corporations anticipated to take part within the trial run embody the federal government’s nationwide medical insurance company; energy firm EGE Haina; Claro, a Latin American telecommunications firm; and IMCA, a heavy gear enterprise.
An area college has been tasked with analysing the outcomes, together with any well being modifications in staff and the connection between work and their private lives.
How does a four-day work week truly … work?
In a four-day work week, the workload usually stays the identical. However corporations, managers and their groups are pressured to prioritise much more than they in any other case must, slicing out, maybe, some conferences.
However there’s one thing else too {that a} four-day week mannequin should emphasise, in line with the Dominican Republic’s Labour Minister Luis Miguel de Camps.
“It prioritises folks, bettering well being and wellbeing, and selling a sustainable and environmentally pleasant productiveness,” stated de Camps.
The place has a four-day work week been trialled — and what occurred?
A number of international locations world wide have examined or legislated a four-day work week, significantly since COVID-19, which reignited conversations round office flexibility, productiveness, and work-life steadiness.
In 2023, the UK launched what is taken into account the largest trial of a four-day work week and located constructive outcomes. A complete of 61 corporations joined the trial, and 56 prolonged it, with 18 making the change everlasting.
About 2,900 staff had been a part of the pilot within the UK. Surveys taken earlier than and after the trial discovered decreased stress ranges inside employees.
Greater than half of the surveyed staff stated it was simpler to steadiness work and residential duties, whereas 40 p.c additionally stated they had been sleeping higher.
Among the different advantages that emerged from the UK trial included:
- Staff ended up taking much less sick depart since they’d extra time to bodily and mentally recuperate from work and related stress.
- Gender parity improved. Males contributed extra to family and household duties after they had three-day weekends.
In Japan, the place loss of life by overwork killed shut to three,000 folks in 2022, bigger corporations akin to Microsoft have examined the four-day work week and located constructive outcomes.
Are there different success tales?
Iceland trialled a shorter work week between 2015 and 2019. Roughly 2,500 public sector staff participated in it.
The outcomes: Staff had been much less harassed, and productiveness didn’t undergo.
The trial, that Iceland’s labour unions renegotiated contracts for greater than 85 p.c of the nation’s workforce to scale back work hours.
However are all four-day work weeks the identical?
In February 2022, Belgium grew to become the primary European nation to legislate a shorter work week. Staff can select to work 4 days per week as an alternative of 5, with out shedding their wage.
However there’s a catch: They need to nonetheless work 40 hours. In different phrases, those that select the four-day work week should work 10 hours a day.
In 2021, the United Arab Emirates authorities introduced that every one public sector organisations would function for four and a half days per week. Nonetheless, staff within the nation nonetheless spend a few of the highest hours at work, at a median of 52.6 hours per week per employed individual.
How about going longer moderately than shorter?
In India, current requires a 70-hour week have sparked heated debate.
In 2023, Narayana Murthy, the enduring co-founder of Indian multinational know-how firm Infosys, made the advice saying it may enhance productiveness and the nation’s economic system.
India’s economic system is already the fastest-growing amongst G20 nations. And Indians already work a median of 47.7 hours per week, which is higher than the 36.4 common in the USA or 36.6 in Japan, in line with the Worldwide Labour Organisation.
In China, some companies apply a “996” work tradition, during which staff work from 9am to 9pm, six days per week. The common work week, nonetheless, is 46.1 hours.
Nonetheless, Murthy recommended that the younger generation is just not hardworking sufficient.
“India’s work productiveness is among the lowest on the planet. Our children should say: That is my nation, I need to work 70 hours per week,” he stated throughout a podcast. India’s labour unions have hit again at Murthy’s feedback.