In Lithuania, an offer to work 4 working days a week for the same salary: the company that has tried it says it is worth it

President of the Lithuanian Trade Union Confederation Inga Ruginienė Delphi Days the interview responded to how employees value this opportunity to work four days a week.

“Who can not be happy with a longer vacation? This proposal is particularly important for employees, since it must be emphasized that the shorter working hours are for the same salary. There is no need to manipulate and say that the salary will decrease , certainly not. Four days a week or six hours a day is an option for the same salary, as well as a longer rest so that a person can recover for the next working day “, says I. Ruginienė.

Head of the Lithuanian Employers’ Confederation: this issue should be left to the market

Meanwhile, Danas Arlauskas, director of the Lithuanian Employers’ Confederation, shared how the proposal looks from employers.

“I would like to ask Ms. Rugin. She has another contradictory question, and how much is it possible to reduce the number of working days for the same salary? Maybe four, three or maybe two?” The problem is extremely serious. He rightly said that everyone enjoys shorter hours for the same salary, but the opinion of employers is very simple and today some companies are reducing the working day, shortening both the working day and the weekly working day.

There are also a number of employers that invest in the social needs of employees: health, training, and more. Of course, this is done in a way that is sensitive to economic opportunities. If there are economic opportunities, we live in an age when all employers understand the need to invest in employees.

But if we ask ourselves how we generally evaluate what the Social Democrats offer, we evaluate it negatively. We believe that this issue should be left to the market, to the evolutionary process. When politicians get involved in this process, good ideas are desecrated, ”says the interlocutor.

Ensures that the idea paid off

Gerimantas Bakanas, CEO of Vilnius Heating Networks, was able to share the experience of his company, where a four-day working week is already in effect.

“It just came to our attention then. We started such a pilot project last fall when we started with seven divisions of the company. Starting on January 1, the entire company started working in that mode, except for shift workers.

I would just like to add to Ms. Ruginiene that four working days with higher productivity means that employees do as much work as they did in five working days or even more. We have set ourselves that goal and that is the essence, ”says G. Bakan.

The director also spoke about the results he noticed in the company.

“We are seeing an increase in productivity, employee participation and the willingness to maintain that regime. I want to mention that we are now working on that design mode and the staff are well aware that if they don’t get as much done as they did in five business days or more, they will miss that opportunity.

When they know, they get involved and we get fantastic results. During the three months of this year, employees submitted 134 proposals to company management on how to increase the efficiency of operations, the employees themselves without any pressure. They made so many offers themselves, and those offers generated an effect of eight hundred hours of work per month. This result shows that we can work four days, we can work the same or even more efficiently than working five weeks, ”says G. Bakan.

Ruginiene: people work today with an inhuman burden

I. Ruginienė also reacted to the responses of the interlocutors and assured that we cannot leave everything to evolution and hope that after five or ten years of endless hard work, a person will continue to be productive and will be able to work.

“First of all, if we leave the process to evolution, we still have at least twelve hours a day, seven days a week today, the exploitation of children in the labor market, women would not have the right to vote, go to the school, learn to read and write. That path is not correct and we understand it.

The point of this proposal is that people today work with an inhuman burden. When working under such loads, in order to maintain a long working life, it is very important to allow a person to rest, recover and return to work with new strength. Research shows that only a rested person can work more productively and create more added value. Unfortunately, we now use workers as commodities, we place inhumane burdens, we don’t limit the number of working hours, and people work overtime.

We conclude that after five or ten years a person is practically incapacitated and does not have the strength to go to work. To prevent this from happening, we say that today we are ready to talk about a shorter work week, ”says I. Ruginienė.

Bakan: In a few months we will be able to fully work in four business days.

When asked if there are cases in which people do not have enough four working days a week to do their work, Bakan said that many departments have achieved the required results.

“I would like to point out that this is a project and it is natural for employees to learn to do all the work in four business days and today if a company has thirty-three divisions, then thirty divisions meet this indicator, their performance is good, several departments are having a hard time with the coronavirus.

Naturally, the switch doesn’t turn on in a day and people don’t learn to work that way. As I mentioned, we are implementing many innovations, many processes are underway, so not everything happens at the same time, but I think that in a few months we will be able to work completely and calmly in four business days, ”says the interlocutor.

We recall that the resolution on the future of work and labor relations emphasizes that, during the COVID-19 crisis, workers, especially those on the front line of the pandemic, are in a very bad situation due to the poor working conditions and stress.

“Many workers in the health, education, social, public safety, commerce and services sectors, as well as food and non-food messengers, have risked their lives, but no one, neither the state nor the companies, has adequately rewarded them so far . “the document read.

Social Democrats emphasize that in certain sectors today, especially in international transport and logistics, people work in extreme conditions, receive a minimum wage for hard work, and are forced to fight every day for their survival and dignity.