4-day working week in India? Modi govt readies new labour rules
The Modi government is considering a major change in the labour policy. The government is planning to introduce new rules to give flexibility to companies to have four working days instead of five or six. According to reports, the working hours limit of 48 hours for a week will not be changed.
If someone works for 8 hours a day, then there will be 6 working days per week. If a company opts for 12-hour working per day for its employees, it means four-day working and three holidays.
"If daily working hours are increased, you will have to give the workers similar holidays also. There will be 5 or 4 working days if duty hours are increased. It will now be mutually agreed to by the employees and employers as to what is appropriate for them," Labour Secretary Apurva Chandra said.
Chandra said that if a company offers a 4-days work week, the remaining three days should be paid offs. He said that the issue of flexibility in working days is being discussed.
Chandra said that the Ministry is currently engaged in formulating relevant rules and regulations to implement the four new Labour Codes in the next few weeks to usher in labour reforms. The new labour laws will not compromise the interests of labourers and employees in any way, he said.
Yogita Tulsiani, Director and Co-founder, iXceed Solutions, said that the 4 days work culture can only be implemented according to the functioning and working of different sectors.
"The 4 days work week concept has been in discussion for quite some time now. This debate has started off in Germany that already has the lowest working hours in a week at 34.2 hours. Several companies have experimented with it. But I suppose a 5-day work culture is more effective and contributes to better productivity at the workplace. Since the reduction in working days will reflect in the number of increased working hours, it will act as more burden for the employees. The increased timeline of work will hassle the employees stress level per day decreasing the work productivity," she said.
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