Jump to content
Banner by ~ Ice Princess Silky

aoEAF2FBvC0MIo2Q

Recommended Posts

Sweden and possibly Australia are to experiment with this for a year. Source article here:

http://www.news.com.au/finance/work/as-the-swedish-city-of-gothenburg-trials-a-sixhour-working-day-we-ask-can-it-work-in-australia/story-fnkgbb6w-1226880965695

Aside from this being much less straining for all of us as workers, there may be benefits to employers as well and even the economy at large as this could mean more job openings to get money circulating more.

 

Mr Pilhem told news.com.au that two council departments would take part in the trial. One group will work a standard 40-hour week and the other a six-hour day or 30-hour week. Staff in both groups are to remain on full pay.


Here are some points for employers to consider.

 

Council staff have agreed to trial a six-hour working day for one year, believing it will create more jobs, increase productivity and reduce sick leave


 

“If we share the jobs, more job opportunities will be created,” Mr Pilhem told news.com.au last night.


 

According to the Australian Human Resources Institute, sickies cost the nation’s economy about $10 billion per year, with our 11 million workers taking an estimated three “unwarranted” days off every year.
[...]
“Long working hours are also associated with ill health, which means lost labour in the long term, as well as higher medical costs for employers and government.”



And those would be the basic points this source is trying to get across. More jobs for the economy in an increasingly automated economy, more productivity and efficiency from workers and less sick days resulting from greater employee health. Definitely something to keep an eye on because the success or failure of this experiment will have some profound implications that could change the lives of billions of people both in this generation and beyond.
  • Brohoof 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is a theory in economics. Between wage, working hours, and spending/leisure. The regular person works more with low wages to make ends meet. However, when given a higher wage, they work less, and increase leisure time. When they increase leisure time they increase spending. Spending boosts the economy as more money is put into circulation rather than being hoarded. Now this is assuming a rational actor. There is the people that will work the same amount and make more, but they still are inclined to spend more. It is very interesting because it is a strong argument for higher wages and also makes everyone happy as the business spends the same amount of money roughly on the employee, but get more money to be likely spent on them boosting business.

  • Brohoof 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Sweden and possibly Australia are to experiment with this for a year. Source article here:

 

http://www.news.com.au/finance/work/as-the-swedish-city-of-gothenburg-trials-a-sixhour-working-day-we-ask-can-it-work-in-australia/story-fnkgbb6w-1226880965695

 

Aside from this being much less straining for all of us as workers, there may be benefits to employers as well and even the economy at large as this could mean more job openings to get money circulating more.

 

 

 

Here are some points for employers to consider.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And those would be the basic points this source is trying to get across. More jobs for the economy in an increasingly automated economy, more productivity and efficiency from workers and less sick days resulting from greater employee health. Definitely something to keep an eye on because the success or failure of this experiment will have some profound implications that could change the lives of billions of people both in this generation and beyond.

That might work for certain parts of certain sectors. However, you have to take into consideration the cost of training employees up to the standards necessary to perform their job.

 

For instance, my employer spends 3 years and about a million dollars to train each person that does my particular job. With that kind of investment, it's far more cost effective to have 5 people working 60 hours/week, rather than 10 people working 30 hours/week. Also, we're salary, which makes the existing approach even more desirable for the organization's bottom line: there's no "overtime" and no quitting (per contract).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think if we got rid of all the corporate welfare, bailouts, subsidies ect and regulations which entrench monopolies there be far more jobs available at the kind of hours that work for both employees and employers because there will be an increased demand in the labor market. People that want to work 30 hours or less will be feasible for more people and people that want to work 40 hours a week or perhaps even more than that will also be able to do. You look to history and every time employers have exploited employees it has nearly always been a result of corporatism aka crony capitalism which is sadly often confused for the free market, without this third party employers can only do so much before workers move on to employers that will treat them better leaving said employers with no employees to do said jobs. Two serious problems though that this alone will not solve is all the outsourcing of labor to third world countries and the black market in labor created by illegal immigration which are both driving down the wages of workers.

  • Brohoof 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Join the herd!

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...