Experiments destined to move to the four-day week are multiplying in Europe, in various forms and on a more or less large scale.
- Belgium
At the end of September, the Belgian parliament voted for a labor market reform that includes the possibility for employees to work full time for four days instead of five. It is not about reducing working time, which varies in Belgium between 38 and 40 hours per week according to collective agreements. The unions also want to reduce this duration and see the current reform as a stepping stone towards a 36-hour workweek.
Now permitted by law, the four-day job is done on a voluntary basis and for a six-month renewable trial period. Separated parents in alternating child care also have the possibility of reducing their working hours during their care week, provided that they make up for the following week. For them, the working time is calculated in two weeks. For all four-day employees, it is prohibited to work overtime on the fifth day and the benefit of employer-issued meal stamps remains calculated on five days.
Presenting the reform in early 2022, Prime Minister Flemish Liberal Alexander De Croo said he wanted to offer employees “more freedom and flexibility to better reconcile private and professional life”.
- Spain
The Spanish government of the socialist Pedro Sánchez launched an experiment this year in 200 voluntary SMEs to test the reduction to 32 hours of the weekly working day, for four days, without a drop in salary. This pilot project, at the initiative of a small left-wing party (Mas País), has a duration of three years and is financed with public funds. He plans to eventually compare productivity at the companies involved with that of companies that have maintained the five-day (40-hour) week.
In recent years, several large companies have already tried, or even adopted, the four-day week for certain employees, such as the telecommunications giant Telefónica or the ready-to-wear group Desigual, but often with a reduction of salary. Increase in the number of daily hours. Despite these initiatives, the four-day working week is an issue on which there is no consensus: the unions are in favor, the main employers’ organization (CEOE) opposes it, considering it inapplicable in many sectors of activity.
- France
In France, some companies have started. Among the pioneers, Yprema (transformation of deconstruction materials), a hundred employees, has applied this method of organization since 1999. More recently, others have also made this commitment: the LDLC computer group (thousand employees), the platform dedicated to the world of work Welcome to the jungle or Elmy electricity supplier.
According to a study by the human resources specialist ADP, in July, “64% of French employees, all sectors combined, would like to benefit from greater flexibility in the organization of their working hours, with the possibility of concentrating them on four days week”. Also according to ADP, all industries combined, the four-day week has only been adopted by 5% of companies.
For Benoit Serre, vice president of the association of directors of human resources (ANDRH), “employees ask for more flexibility in their organization. Four or five days is a false debate”.
- United Kingdom
A UK four-day week trial, launched in June for six months, is showing positive results so far, according to mid-term data released in late September. More than 70 companies have signed up for this experiment, which allows more than 3,300 employees to work one day less a week while maintaining the same salary.
According to a survey of companies, to which just over half responded, 88% said that “the four-day week worked + well + for their company at this stage,” reports 4 Day Week Global, the association that organizes the experimentation. 86% of responding companies said they would “probably” or “extremely likely” consider keeping the four-day week after the trial period ends.
Almost half have seen their productivity maintained, a third believe that it has even “improved slightly” and 15% that it has “improved significantly”. “The four-day week has been a great success for us: productivity has remained high, with an increase in team well-being”, but also “a 44% increase in financial performance”, says Claire Daniels, leader from Trio Media, a marketing agency. from Leeds (north).
- Germany
This issue is not really discussed in Germany, where the organization of working time and wages are generally negotiated directly between unions and companies by branch of activity, without government intervention. Above all, there is still a debate among economic experts about the advisability of reducing or extending the working day (to 40-42 hours per week) to solve the problem of the lack of labor in certain branches (restoration, construction, airports, etc.)
There are, however, initiatives by small businesses, particularly in crafts, of a four-day week to attract applicants. The DIY chain store Hornbach recently announced that it wanted to give its employees more flexibility by offering “tailor-made working hours”. “Starting next year, our employees in Germany will be able to reduce, reassign or extend their working hours,” according to the company.
Source: BFM TV
