Four-Day-Week System:
In view of the global pandemic, jobs done from home, flexible scheduling, and remote employment are no longer foreign concepts. As many people remain to function in a varied manner, expecting everyone to go back to work five days every week is difficult.
Because of the particulars of the business, numerous businesses struggle to provide distant or hybrid working arrangements. To confront such issues, the Indian government recently unveiled four fresh sets of labour rules, one of which created a four-day work week. In addition to it, employees will witness a spike in work hours, an alteration in PF contributions, and an effect on their salary.
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Beneficial for Employees:
Several tests have demonstrated that reducing working hours (four-day work weeks) benefits employees by giving them more time to unwind, cook, physical activity, pursue interests, and to spend time with their family. All of these factors contribute to their general well-being and satisfaction with their jobs, making people more energized and efficient at work.
Novel idea:
If working over nine hours each day, five or six days a week, in your place of employment or business in India burns you, you might be looking forward to the encouraging announcement that Indian enterprises are implementing a four-day work week. But it may be inappropriate to get excited with excitement since, though most 4-day working week experiments around the world are regarded as being effective; there remain many critics of this novel idea.
Experimental Initiatives in Many Countries:
Although the four-day work week remains to draw interest and is passionately discussed, there is certainly evidence that it has gained traction, with trial programmes underway in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, and Australia.
These experimental initiatives, led by 4 Day Week Global, an independent partnership, are expected to help everybody by increasing workers’ satisfaction, balance between work and life, and production while lowering joblessness. Prior to this, Iceland was recognized for the largest lower workweek pilot. It occurred between 2015 and 2019. Two large trials involving 2,500 workers from the public sector were conducted. The study found no decline in performance but a significant increase in satisfaction among workers.
Productive for Employees & Employers-The Atlantic:
According to a study published in The Atlantic, individuals who work a four-day week are more satisfied with their lives and less stressed, while their employers claim their employees are far more concentrated and productive. According to study, 94% of employees feel better when they believe their company cared about it. According to studies, the best amount of heavy mental task time is four hours a day.
Thorough Research Required Before Implementation:
Despite four working days per week would not result in significant productivity among employees, the majority of enterprises participating in the pilot programmes reported that their output has either remained constant or increased. This is a sufficient incentive for considering it a try. To some, a four-day work week may be too appealing to be genuine. Though the approach will have advantages and disadvantages, the data it produces require additional research, and four-day week metrics should be thoroughly investigated. Furthermore, before it is implemented, both its benefits and drawbacks must be thoroughly discussed, particularly with businesses and employees.
48 Hours Per Week:
The Indian government isn’t far behind, with plans to introduce new labour laws in the coming fiscal year that will allow enterprises to work four days per week (rather than five or six). To achieve the 48-hour weekly perform requirement, the measure requires employees to work 12 hours every day rather than 8 hours.
PTI Report:
According to a PTI report, the government has already finalized plans and guidelines for the new system, which has drawn the labour laws and now requires the states to establish regulations on their behalf because labour is a concurrent issue. The projected four-day work week in India will have a substantial influence on employee salaries and provident fund contributions. The take-home wage will be reduced, and corporations and their employees will be held liable for a greater portion of the provident fund. According to sources, this means that employees will have a lower in-hand salary and a higher PF balance.
Challenging for Some Sectors:
The suggested four-day work week in India will have a wide-ranging impact on sectors and businesses. The updated system will be simple to adopt in companies across industries such as insurance, banking, technology, and e-commerce. Other businesses, such as manufacturing, agriculture, and healthcare, might discover it challenging to adapt to a four-day workweek. Implementing 12-hour shifts may be difficult in industries such as manufacturing and healthcare, where activities are constantly rotational. It may not even be reasonable to expect manufacturing employees or nurses to labour in a repetitious way for such an extended amount of time.
Impractical in Some Sectors:
Employers may be required to pay workers extra hours, which could be an extra expense for them and hence difficult to compromise upon. According to the Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions Code, workers in the manufacturing sector are not permitted to be on the job more than eight hours per day. Because of these laws and the scope of what they do, implementing a four-day work week in particular sectors would be impractical. Because these industries require continual care and monitoring, forcing them to work four days a week will prevent them from functioning correctly.
Paid Leaves in Govt Sector:
However, for structured sectors, particularly where employees work 12 hours or more each day, embracing the latest labour laws and regulations might offer much-needed accountability. Because many employees who were obliged to operate from home under COVID-19 now desire to continue to do so, the recently passed labour laws have created regulations for such individuals and their employers to help them retain their equilibrium between work and life.
A further significant modification that will be implemented during the course of India’s 4-day Work Week is the increase in the amount of the paid leaves. The updated laws provide for increasing the amount of vacations that employees may transfer over to 450, as opposed to the 300 holidays that government workers receive. Currently, different divisions get 240 to 300 holidays, but workers may only redeem them after 20 years of employment.
Concerns About Increased Expenses & Diminished Productivity:
Workers from the banking sector, the hospitality industry, marketing, banks, health care, retail, and a variety of other sectors have participated in global pilot programmes for a four-day work week. Although there remains time before new labour rules are adopted to clear way for a four-day work week in India, critics of the structure have voiced concerns about increased expenses and diminished productivity.
Conclusion:
However, the pilot programmes show that if you want to encourage production development, raise workers’ joy, and improve their sense of accomplishment while enhancing the balance between work and personal life, substituting five-day work week with four-day work week may be the way forward. Employers must understand that increasing employee efficiency does not always imply extending their working hours. Rather, the emphasis should be on job excellence and the elements that contribute to such high quality, as the four-day work week seeks to do.
