The Minister of Labor and Employment of the Basque Government, Idoia Mendia, is determined to test the four-day working day, and the initial rejection of the employer will not prevent the pilot test from starting up. The Basque Executive continues with its initial idea, despite Confebask's rejection, and the objective is for the trial to be launched next year in companies that wish to participate voluntarily.
The calendar managed by the Basque Government maintains the initial times. Over the next few months, the details of the trial will be designed, and throughout the next year, probably at the beginning of next year, it will be launched in the aforementioned voluntary companies. Afterwards, the test results will be evaluated.
The objective of Idoia Mendia was for this pilot test to be channeled through the Social Dialogue Table, which brings together the Basque Government, representatives of the business sector and unions, although with the significant absence of ELA, the first Basque union, and LAB. However, Confebask's rejection of the proposal announced by Mendia in the Basque Parliament makes this path impossible.
"The current economic situation of crisis and uncertainty only allows us to deal with practical solutions and commitments to, among all of us, get out of the current difficult situation," they pointed out from Confebask.
The Department of Labor and Employment, however, understands that the Basque Country must address this issue within a battery of measures that seek to "retain talent and promote reconciliation". Among these measures that will be evaluated is also the promotion of teleworking and the participation of workers in strategic decisions, through "a proposal to test codetermination in the workplace."
The way of working will be as follows: a pilot plan will be promoted with a practical test regarding the implementation of the aforementioned measures and, secondly, a final evaluation will be undertaken.
The test will be carried out using a "mirror" format, so that it will be implemented in companies that wish to participate and the results obtained will be compared with those of others with similar characteristics where the reduced week is not applied.
The fundamental characteristic of the Basque proposal for a four-day shift is that it will be carried out "without a reduction in salary and without an increase in hours in the daily shift." In other words, those employees who work 40 hours divided into five days, during the experiment will work the same hours a day for four days, reaching a total of 32 hours a week. These workers will receive the same salary as until now, despite the fact that they will work fewer hours at the end of the week. The paradigm would be the following: 80% working hours, 100% productivity, 100% salary.
“What our trial wants is to select companies that want to participate in order to follow up with a similar mirror group of companies that are not in the program. This pilot will allow us to see if the lower pressure can lead to better occupational health, and, therefore, more productivity and fewer casualties for workers. It will allow us to assess the impact that it may have on co-responsibility for care, the measurement of the reduction of the environmental footprint, the commitment of workers to the business project, and, therefore, in the attraction and retention of talent. But, also as I mentioned, we are not only going to talk in this group and we are going to work for the 32-hour week, we are going to explore teleworking, its possibilities, because we have reached a peak in the pandemic, and now we are once again at a minimum in teleworking , and that is a path that must be explored as well. And we also have to explore codetermination”, declared Idoia Mendia in the Basque Parliament.
The counselor explained to La Vanguardia the importance of analyzing this path in order to retain talent: “We see brutal and global competition for talent, and, on occasions, a brain drain. Companies tell you that to be competitive in today's world, but especially in tomorrow's, what is most valuable is people. There, in order to attract people, we see that people, and especially young people, are not only looking for a better salary, but also greater flexibility and work-life balance. What is called the emotional salary is gaining importance”.
Mendia also stresses the importance of the trial being monitored "hand in hand with the academic field", so that it can "clearly see how these measures influence work-life balance, productivity, the satisfaction of people with respect to their workplaces or in terms of youth retention.”
The Basque Government has also indicated that it wants to go “far beyond financial support for these four-day experiences. "The Ministry of Industry has already set this in motion, and it is also open to Basque companies that may want to participate in this project," they indicate. The objective is to explore the advantages and limitations of a work paradigm that may have a path in the future.
