While the four-day working week is being embraced by nations including Australia, one country has launched a controversial 69-hour work week plan.
South Korea’s move to increase the work week from 52 to a maximum 69 hours has triggered protests from trade unions and employees, the UK Financial Times reports.
The centre-right government believes it can help the country – renowned for its workaholic culture – tackle an ageing population and declining workforce.
Under the current labour system, South Korean workers clock 40 hours of regular work and 12 hours of overtime.
Companies that break the rules can face penalties.
The proposed reform enables employers to count overtime on a monthly, quarterly and yearly basis.
This would allow workers to bank more overtime in busy periods, which they can later take back as leave, the government argued.
South Korea’s birth rate has been dropping since 1984 and today stands at the lowest in the world at 0.78.
“We can resolve serious social problems like fast ageing and low birth rates by allowing women to choose their working hours more flexibly,” labour minister Lee Jung-sik said.
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Businesses including construction firms, technology companies and manufacturers have also welcomed the planned longer working week.
But trade unions have slammed the idea as “toxic”, describing it as an “anachronistic idea”.
South Korea’s main opposition party has also pledged to fight the planned legislation in parliament and has highlighted the high workplace injuries and deaths due to overwork.
It will involve them keeping 100 per cent of their pay while cutting their hours to 80 per cent, provided they maintain 100 per cent productivity.
A trial of a four-day work week in Britain, billed as the world’s largest, found that an overwhelming majority of the 61 companies that participated from June to December last year will keep going with the shorter hours and that most employees were less stressed and had better work-life balance.
That was all while companies reported revenue largely stayed the same during the trial period last year and even grew compared with the same six months a year earlier, according to findings released this month.
– Reported with Associated Press
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