Four-day workweek: How feasible is it in India?

Many people in India are optimistic amid the global debate over a four-day workweek since the Centre drafted new labour rules that were intended to go into effect last July. If the new labour codes were to be put into effect, there would be significant changes for employees in terms of their working hours, annual leave, take-home pay, etc.

Companies will be able to require their employees to work four days instead of five under these new regulations. Further, employees will need to put in 12 hours per day, instead of 8 if employers choose a four-day workweek, as opposed to a five-day one, in order to maintain the same number of hours worked overall.

Also read: Business updates: Apple, Foxconn get Karnataka to bend labour laws

The proposed regulations take into account the work-from-home arrangement that developed during the COVID outbreak. The employees’ base pay will need to be equal to 50% of their gross pay. The take-home pay will decrease while the employer’s and employees’ PF contributions rise.

Also read: TN’s primary health doctors cry foul over longer work hours

A few nations, including Spain, Japan, New Zealand, Ireland, Scotland, and Iceland, have a four-day work week as an experiment, though they have also cut back on the number of hours worked each week.

Finland briefly made news around the world after it was claimed that it drastically reduced working hours. However, it later became clear that this was false information, which the government subsequently had to clarify.

Raj Prabhakar, a senior HR professional, tells The Federal that Indian organisations may encounter difficulties implementing a four-day workweek under the current system, since they have to pay workers overtime for the extra hours clocked in. Listen to the full podcast here.

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