MOSCOW, October 7 (RIA Novosti) - The State Duma Committee for Labour, Social Policy and Veterans' Affairs has decided to hold a round-table discussion on introducing a four-day work week to meet the ILO’s recent recommendation, the committee chairperson Andrei Isaev was quoted as saying by Russian daily Kommersant Tuesday.
According to the official, the Committee “won’t let the initiative go unnoticed” and will arrange a meeting this week. Isaev underscored that it is not the number of days that is important; the working hours are important. In his opinion, “working 10 hours four days long is the same 40-hour week”. The lawmaker fosters establishment of a 36-hour work week and insists salaries and wages be kept.
At the beginning of October Jon Messenger, a high-profile member of the International Labour Organization (ILO), in the agency’s official blog grounded “5 good reasons for working 4 days a week”. He explains that too much work can harm one’s health (1), whereas a shorter week could fight unemployment (2), help one be more industrious and efficient (3), improve the ecological situation by cutting traffic (4) and ultimately cheer us all (5).
For the recommendation to gain legal power, it has to be formed as a convention and then be joined and ratified by Russia, comments Anna Stefania Chepik, the CEO of YourBee legal company in her interview with Kommersant. As a member state, Russia has already ratified 68 ILO conventions with some of them subsequently amending the Labour Code. However, an ILO document will have a priority even if no amendments to the Labour Code are made.
Trade unions have met the initiative with optimism. Newspaper Vedomosti renders the opinion of the Moscow Federation of Trade Unions Deputy Chairman Sergei Chinnov who believes a shorter week would create new jobs in Russia’s regions.
In their turn, business representatives feel sceptic about the recommendation as they consider the Russian economy low efficient and think cutting a work week would inflict heavy losses on it. In an interview with Kommersant, recruitment agency HeadHunter’s Managing Director Mikhail Zhukov stated “neither the present nor the next Russian generations have a chance to switch to a four-day week”.
As Forbes reminds, some of the world’s wealthiest men have advocated the idea of introducing a four-day work week, among them Google CEO Larry Page and Virgin founder Richard Branson.
