A Path to a 4-day week
with 8-hour days
Suppose(!) an Oz government or IR tribunal, wanted to shift the standard working week to four eight-hour days.
Here's one possible path:
Reduce standard working week from 38 hours to 35, a demand of the trade union movement that's been on the books for the last 50 years. With four weeks annual leave and 10 public holidays per year, that implies just over 1600 hours per year (excluding sick leave etc)
Now move to the four-day, 32 hour week, with the proviso that the full four days are worked in weeks with public holidays. That gives 1536 hours worked in a standard year
Now shift from four weeks annual leave to two, with the proviso that workers can put in up to eight 5-day weeks during the year and take the time off in an additional two-week block. That brings annual hours back up to 1600 3/...
Thoughts?
It would be fascinating if most people's working hours were lowered to match the school drop-off/pickup, and the question of whether working substantially outside those hours attracts penalty rates/other incentives
Sounds good - I'd expect most people to work the extra time in order to earn 4 weeks leave, which will accommodate businesses with busy seasons: they can have staff working full weeks during peak periods.
By 'heres one possible path', do you mean path in terms of sequence in time or logic? I see no reason why steps 2 and 3 wouldn't be introduced simultaneously.
The challenges are a) getting business to agree to the reduction of hours in step 1; b) the logistics of moving to step 2/3 and having to spread staff with 4-day working weeks over the 5 business days of the week (I can't envision a shift to 3-day weekends getting up and see that as a separate issue to an individual's 4-day work week).