In February, the Dominican Republic will be the first Caribbean country to test the four-day workweek, following similar tests in countries such as the United Kingdom.
The six-month pilot will be voluntary for companies and will not involve a pay cut for participating employees.
The growing calls for a shorter workweek stem from discussions and anecdotes in the time of COVID-19 that long in-person work hours don’t necessarily guarantee higher productivity.
So, what is the four-day workweek in the Dominican Republic?Have you found good luck elsewhere?
Starting in February, organizations in the Caribbean country will decide whether or not to implement a four-day, six-month trial workweek.
The standard week will drop to 36 hours from 44 hours, typically running from Monday through to Thursday. Employees will continue to earn the same salaries.
Among the corporations expected to participate in the trial are the government’s National Health Insurance Agency; the electric power company EGE Haina; Claro, a Latin American telecommunications company; and IMCA, a heavy equipment company.
A local university was commissioned to analyze the results, adding possible changes in the physical prestige of the painters and the relationship between work and their personal lives.
In a four-day work week, the workload typically remains the same. But companies, managers and their teams are forced to prioritise even more than they otherwise have to, cutting out, perhaps, some meetings.
But there’s also something else that emphasizes the style of the four-day week, according to Dominican Republic Labor Minister Luis Miguel de Camps.
“It puts other people first, fitness and wellness, and sells sustainable, environmentally friendly productivity,” de Camps said.
Several countries around the world have tested or legislated a four-day work week, especially since COVID-19, which has reignited debates about flexibility, productivity and work-life balance.
In 2023, the UK announced what is the largest test of a four-day workweek and got positive results. A total of 61 companies joined the trial, 56 expanded it, and 18 made the upgrade permanent.
Approximately 2,900 workers participated in the pilot task in the United Kingdom. Pre- and post-trial surveys showed an easing in the degrees of tension among staff.
More than half of the painters surveyed said they found it easier to balance work and family responsibilities, while 40% also said they slept better.
Some of the other benefits that emerged from the UK trial included:
Iceland tried a shorter workweek between 2015 and 2019. Approximately 2,500 public sector workers participated.
The results: Workers were less stressed, and productivity did not suffer.
The lawsuit, according to which Icelandic industrial unions renegotiated the contracts of more than 85% of the country’s workers to reduce working hours.
In February 2022, Belgium became the first European country to legislate on a shorter working week. Employees can work four days a week instead of five, without wasting their paycheck.
But there’s a problem: they still have to paint 40 hours. In other words, those who opt for the four-day work week will have to paint 10 hours a day.
In 2021, the UAE government announced that all public sector organizations would operate four and a half days a week. However, the country’s workers still put in the highest number of hours of work, with a constant average of 52. 6 hours. with consistent week with the user employed.
In India, calls for a 70-hour week have sparked heated debate.
In 2023, Narayana Murthy, the iconic co-founder of Indian tech multinational Infosys, made this recommendation, saying it could breathe life into the country’s productivity and economy.
India’s economy is already the fastest-developing among the G20 countries. And Indians already work an average of 47. 7 hours per week, which is higher than the average of 36. 4 hours in the United States or 36. 6 hours in Japan, according to the International Labor Organization.
In China, some corporations practice a “ninenine6” painting culture, in which painters paint from nine in the morning to nine at night, six days a week. However, the average weekly runtime is 46. 1 hours.
Still, Murthy advised the younger generation to run pretty hard.
“India’s labour productivity is one of the lowest in the world. Our young people want to say: this is my country, I want to work 70 hours a week,” he said in a podcast. Indian unions reacted to Murthy’s comments.