Push for four-day working week gains fresh momentum
Major union, Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation have renewed calls for the country to move towards a four-day working week.
The Victorian branch have made submission to a federal parliament senate committee, calling for the one day reduction of the working week, reducing working hours from 38 to 32.
The ANMF told the Select Committee on Work and Care, which is due to hand down an interim report next month, that the reduction “would enable all employees a better opportunity to balance work with personal responsibilities.”
In their submission, they also called for the circumstances in which carers can apply for personal leave to be broadened from beyond illness, injury and emergency events.
It comes as author Alex Soojung-Kim Pang told Sky News Australia recently that “a few dozen” Australian companies were due to begin trialling the four day working week which would start in October and run for six months.
Mr Soojung-Kim Pang said the signs from an earlier trial beginning in the UK were promising, with “more than half, I think about 55%, saying that productivity is at the same level it was when they were working five days or higher,” he said.
"people say that they are happier, they’re less stressed, they feel like they have a better work-life balance.”
In Iceland, as many as 85% of workers now work four days a week, while more trial are underway in Canada, the US, Spain and New Zealand.
Image: Getty