The Government appears this Wednesday in the Social Dialogue the four-day workweek pilot projectwhose experience is scheduled to begin in June 2023 in private sector companies, and may subsequently be extended to public administration.
According to the government document, the pilot experience in 2023 will be open to all companies in the private sector and will last for six monthsbeing voluntary and reversible and without economic compensation, providing the State with technical and administrative support to support the transition.
“Subsequently, and after a satisfactory evolution of the pilot, this experience should, in a second phase, sYr extended to the public sector“, says the executive, adding that this extension to the public administration “requires the adaptation of impact assessment instruments and will be subject to different legal and budgetary restrictions”.
According to the Government, only in a third moment is there “an intention to create favorable conditions to prove a more ambitious model involving a quasi-experimental design, in which one group of companies will adopt the change and another group will serve as a control.
According to the executive, the experience “cannot imply a salary cut and must imply a reduction in the weekly working day.”
Once the state does not offer any financial compensationAn exact number of weekly hours will not be stipulated, which “can be 32 hours, 34 hours, 36 hours, defined by agreement between management and workers”, but the experience must “involve the vast majority of workers” of the company , “except in large companies, where it can only be tested in a few establishments or departments.”
The schedule of the pilot project foresees that in the coming months, until January 2023, periods of expression of interest by companies and clarification sessions will be carried out.explain how the study will be conducted“, with the selection of participants scheduled for February of next year.
Between March and May the pilot experience will be prepared, which will then begin in June and last until November. During the month of December 2023, “a period of reflection“, during which “management will reflect on the experience and determine whether to maintain the new organization, return to the five-day week, or adopt a hybrid model.”
According to the Government, the evaluation of the pilot project “will focus on the effects of the four-day week on workers and companies.”
On the part of the workers, “the effects on well-being, quality of life, mental health and physical health will be measured, as well as their level of commitment to the company, job satisfaction and intention to remain in the organization” , being also studied “The use of workers’ time on rest daysto understand where and how time not worked is used.
On the business side, “generic focus will be on productivitycompetitiveness, intermediate costs and benefits”, evaluating “the effects on short- and long-term absenteeism rates, on hiring capacity, on the organization of internal processes, on financial and non-financial performance indicators (for example, complaints of customers/users), in the incidence of accidents at work and in the consumption of intermediate goods, whether they are raw materials or energy costs”.
The pilot experience of the four-day week will be coordinated by Pedro Gomes, author of the book “Friday is the New Saturday”, with Rita Fontinha, associate professor of “Strategic Human Resource Management” at the University of Reading’s Henley Business School. , on the team outside the executive.
Source: Observadora
