Work trafficking

Today we begin another month in 2014. Last week’s piece on “School trafficking” which discussed the merits and demerits of a 4-day school week elicited several thought-full reactions. Apparently, we did not have to look outside of the country for an example. UP Biology Professor Augustus Mamaril cited the 4-day school scheme of the University of the Philippines which has been going on for years. It covers the young tots in the kindergarten level (UP Integrated School) all the way to the graduate school.

Professor Mamaril narrates that the 4-day UP week began with taking Wednesday off but then shifted to having Monday off. He prefers the latter as it is better suited for those like him who conduct field work during the weekend.

Arguing in favor of the proposal, he commented that “UP folks are no different from everyone else. Filipinos are adaptable.”

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To help alleviate the mounting traffic congestion, MMDA’s proposal was not only a shift to a four-day school week but a four-day work week as well. Once again, traffic issues aside, this is a proposal that our policymakers should seriously study.

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In the 19th century, people had to endure 7-day work weeks consisting of 15-hour days, 6 days a week, plus 8 to 10 hours on Sunday. This was probably due to the prevailing theme then of Social Darwinism (i.e., survival of the fittest). Coming into the 20th century, the concept of social equality emerged as an overriding concern mainly from the excesses committed during the industrial revolution. Workers also started to band together and formed unions to demand better working conditions.

Ironically, the 40-hour work week was adopted shortly after the Great Depression as a job creation tool. Its logic was that by controlling the hours of one worker, you create work for another.

In 1930, economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that technological advancements would lead to 15-hour work weeks. Similarly, evolutionary biologist Julian Huxley envisioned people working for only two days a week and that we would have so much leisure time, we would get bored and not know what to do. “The human being can only consume so much and no more. When we reach the point when the world produces all the goods that it needs, as it inevitably will, we must curtail our production of goods and turn our attention to the great problem of what to do with our new leisure.”

In 1965, a US Senate subcommittee report predicted that Americans would, by the year 2000, be working 14 hours a week with at least seven weeks of vacation.

On how wrong they all were. They apparently underestimated man’s materialistic greed. While technological innovations have made workers more productive, they also have spurred a consumerism boom particularly in the United States. Instead of taking more time off, Americans are working harder to buy more things.

Historian Benjamin Hunnicutt has called the shorter work week as the “forgotten American dream.” “Work was valorized-elevated to the center of life more so than it ever had before and leisure was demoted and trivialized.”

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In contrast, European workers get to play more and four-day work schedules are not uncommon. Belgium and Netherlands provide for a 30-hour work week while the average French and German worker logs in 35 hours a week. Yet, Dutch workers are at par with their American counterparts in terms of productivity. In a recent UNICEF review of 21 industrial nations in terms of well being for children, Netherlands placed first while the US was in 20th place.

Similarly, the average German worker clocks 394 hours less (nearly 10 fewer weeks) than an American, yet the German economy is still the world’s fourth largest with the third largest amount of exports. Its unemployment rate is at 5 percent as compared to the United States’ 7 percent.

Closer to home, Asian workers are the most workaholic in the world. Almost 48% of Hong Kong employees reported working more than 51 hours per week. South Korean workers put in an annual average of 2,193 hours (around 46 hours a week). On paper, Japan observes a Monday to Friday, 40-hour work week. In practice, however, many employees work in excess of 60 hours.

But working longer does not automatically translate to working better. In fact, long working hours are associated with lower productivity since the average human being can only work for so many hours in one day.

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Back home, ECOP president Edgardo Lacson said that a four-day work week is impractical for certain industries such as manufacturing and export-oriented industries, and the banking sector. He also observed that a mandatory four-day scheme may severely impact collective bargaining agreements and compensation particularly of daily paid workers. Instead, Lacson advocates a voluntary implementation of the scheme depending upon the collective decision of the stakeholders in each firm.

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So after examining the pros and cons of a four-day work week, what do you think? Based on the experience of other countries, it seems that the scheme has succeeded on three levels: productivity, environmental and personal wellness. Yet my four centavos is that the key is flexibility. Work-life balance is a subjective topic. It is difficult to find a “one size fits all” solution that would meet the needs of various sectors in our economy. Perhaps government can create a menu of options that private companies can choose from after consulting with their respective constituencies. However, Government offices that provide basic services should continue to be open 8 to 5, five days a week.

A possible compromise worth looking at is the 9 to 8 scheme. Under this schedule, you get every other Friday off. Thus, for the first week, you would work for 9 hours Monday to Thursday and work 8 hours on Friday. On the second week, you would again work 9 hours Monday through Thursday but you can take Friday off. It’s like having a long weekend every other week yet without having to suffer a long as a 10-hour work day. –Dean Andy Bautista (The Philippine Star)