2024-04-11 06:17:53
“Vilniaus šilimos tinklai” is one of the few Lithuanian companies where most of the employees work not five, but four days a week. This work model has been applied in the company since 2021. It is estimated that work efficiency increased by more than 20 percent.
“Today, we have only a smaller percentage of people who cannot work in a four-day regime due to the specifics of their work – there are about 16 percent of such people. They must ensure a constant supply of heat or hot water to our customers,” Dalia Vitkuvienė, head of the Vilniaus šilums nettki team, told Lietuvos ryto television.
As the debate continues on the adoption of a shorter working week in companies, only 8% would now support the change. Lithuanian employers.
“It does not meet the expectations of all companies. If these are industrial enterprises, the production processes do not even allow them to be left unattended, there must always be at least some kind of workers to look after them. I think the transition to a four-day work week will happen someday, but it will happen when large-scale robotization and digitalization take place,” Eglė Stonkutė, an economist at the Confederation of Lithuanian Industrialists, is convinced.
Residents interviewed would agree that the working week should last four days instead of five.
“I think time would be enough, maybe only that time would be concentrated. I think people would definitely be able to do the same work,” one passer-by thought.
“People would have more time for rest, maybe work would become more productive.” When people rest, they have more motivation,” another seconded him.
“I think it is possible to do the work in a more concentrated way, to rest more, so that you can then work more productively for the next four days,” agreed another resident.
However, every second employer does not agree that a shorter work week would increase employee productivity or help reduce operating costs.
“Employers are skeptical about only one thing, because they will need to really invest more in employees. Therefore, if we are talking about the fact that today one employee already does the work of two or three employees, the workload is extremely intense, then, of course, it will be necessary to hire more employees and distribute the workload”, said Inga Ruginienė, the chairperson of the Confederation of Lithuanian Trade Unions.
“A day of unemployment is no gross domestic product (GDP) created.” If we all go to a four-day work week starting tomorrow, you have to understand that that’s about a fifth of GDP. Even though we’re losing that GDP, people will still expect wages to stay the same. Therefore, salaries will have to be paid for the uncreated GDP”, E.Stonkutė assured.
“If we are talking about shorter working hours, it is likely that we are automatically talking about lower income as well. If, in theory, the salary would remain the same, but we would produce less in fewer hours, inflation and prices would automatically rise, and the purchasing power would decrease,” said Deputy Minister of Social Security and Labor Vytautas Šilinskas.
There has been talk of a shortage of workers in the country for some time. The chairwoman of the Confederation of Lithuanian Trade Unions says that a shorter working week would be an advantage for the employer, allowing to solve the problem of lack of employees.
“Improving working conditions and applying higher standards, as well as higher wages, is the only way to attract more workers.” Today in Lithuania we have a very different situation. One company can’t find employees in any way, while there is a queue waiting for other companies, young people are waiting for a place to become available and they can appeal”, said I.Ruginienė.
The Ministry of Social Security and Labor states that in Lithuania it is possible to work only four working days a week: this can be done by people who work according to an individual work schedule, it is possible to provide for a shorter working week in the collective agreement, and since last year the four-day working week applies to persons who works in the public sector and has children under the age of three.
“We do not support other considerations, that the government would force people to work fewer hours, because we need to consider that if we work less, we will earn less and be poorer.” There are professions where it is possible to work fewer hours and get the same amount done, but not all professions. Imagine if doctors worked 20 percent. fewer hours”, stated V. Šilinskas.
In Lithuania, the average working time of an employee is 40 hours per week, so Lithuanians now work several hours more than the EU average, which is 37.5 hours.
2024-04-11 06:17:53