Finland To Introduce Six-hour Work Shifts, Four-day Working Week
HELSINKI: Finland Prime Minister Sanna Marin has proposed the introduction of six-hour work shifts and a four-day working week in the country.
The youngest serving PM in the world has plans to follow the lead of Sweden, where the six-hour working experiment began in 2015. According to European reports, Marin believes ‘people deserve to spend more time with their families’ and give time to their hobbies. The centre-left PM thinks this development in the working hours will be the ‘next step’ in professional life.
Currently, most people in Finland work eight hours a day for five days a week. Country’s Scandinavian neighbour, Sweden’s experiment’s early results reportedly suggest that it increases productivity, well being and health, but is expensive.
International reports also state that some critics believe the reduction in working hours and days can leave an adverse effect on businesses and economic growth. However, Marin’s partner and education minister of Finland, Li Andersson welcomed the latest proposal.
Similarly in the UK, the ruling party’s main opposition, Labour had promised to implement a four-day working week with ‘no loss of wages’ within ten years before the December elections. The defeated party also planned to cut the average working week to 32 hours.
However, Conservatives won with a thumping majority on December elections, leaving Labour’s plan unsuccessful. Meanwhile in Finland, after multiple strikes, the labour unions and industrial employers reached a deal on pay rises and working conditions.
Marin was elected as Finland’s new Prime Minister, making her the world’s youngest one at 34 years of age. The Social Democratic Party’s leader was appointed as the PM after Antti Rinne resigned in the month of June.
The council of the SDP voted 32-29 to appoint Marin as the PM. Talking to local media outlets, Marin said that it is a long road ahead in order to rebuild trust among the people after having won votes by a narrow margin ahead of rival Antti Lindtman.(Republic World).
