The Covid came to accelerate remote work and now in some countries like Belgium, employees will be able to work four days a week, after the Government reached a new agreement to grant greater flexibility to the labor market, gave know Reuters.
The Belgian Prime Minister, Alexander De Croo, pointed out that the coronavirus pandemic has forced people to work in a more flexible way and to combine their private and work life.
“This has given rise to new ways of working”, said the official when disclosing more details of the agreement.
Among the modifications, it is contemplated that employees who request it will be able to work until 10 hours per day if the unions agree, instead of the eight that are currently worked.
With this measure, the beneficiaries could work one day less a week without their salary being affected.
Belgians will also be able to choose to work ar more for one week and less the next, which will allow people to better manage their work and private lives, which could be beneficial for people who are in co-parenting, for example.
“I think giving employees flexibility is a great idea, in fact, so you can organize yourself differently, maybe have a three-day weekend, organize if you have children, it is easier”, said the musician Amaury Massion, of 44 years.
Another important point to highlight of the agreement is the right to disconnect after working hours, for companies with more than 20 employees.
New regulations were also established for so-called platform workers, such as Uber, in which new criteria were included to consider them employees.
In Europe, the application of the initiative called “4 Day Week” is already being studied, led by the entity Autonomy and researchers from the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford and Boston College.
“It will be studied whether they can work at 100% during the 80 % of the time (…) more companies are moving towards productivity-focused strategies that allow them to reduce working hours without reducing salary”, highlighted Joe O’ Connor, director of the 4 Day Week Global pilot program.
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