Spain to Launch Four-Day Working Week Pilot Programme

SPAIN has announced plans to launch a pilot programme for its ambitious four-day working week scheme that will provide funds to see employees given full wages for a day’s less work.

The four-day working week concept was proposed by Mas Pais, an offshoot of the Podemos party who share government power with Pedro Sanchez’s centre-left PSOE party. The government of Spain has now agreed to spend 50 million euro paying the salaries of workers who have had their working hours reduced to 4 days by the pandemic.

Although the current rollout of the proposal is narrow in scope, proponents of the concept hope that it will incentivise companies to adopt the 4-day working week. Maria Alvarez, a leading campaigner for the concept, told local media that it is a “sensible idea that should be in every government’s toolbox coming out of this crisis”.

“The eight-hour working day was unrealistic a century ago,” Mas Pais leader Íñigo Errejón said. However, he continued that due to the rise in remote working, automation, and other factors of our rapidly changing employment landscape it is a concept that Spanish businesses and lawmakers need to give consideration. Last year, the Valencian Community’s government launched a similar scheme to offer incentives for local employers to adopt the new work routine.

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