Due to COVID-19, a Bulgarian data processing company laid off employees on probation.
Due to COVID-19, a Bulgarian data processing company laid off its employees on probation. The reduced workload reduced labour to six hours a day. In addition, less time in the office and more outside experience gave impetus to new ideas, bTV reports.
In the company's office, both employees and employers embrace the idea of a 4-day week. But this is yet to be adopted.
"Administratively, this changes the entire documentation, but it's a good idea," Borislava Domuschiev, a partner in the data processing company, explains.
It is a matter of agreement and political will for this to happen everywhere. We must maintain our wage levels, unions say. Furthermore, we require a conversation at an EU level.
"So that we have objective data on the labour force we need, the available one. The goal - more time for our personal life, more time for developing as a person, rather than a link in the production process," Vanya Grigorova from Podkrepa states.
According to employers, businesses have no legal obstacles introducing the shorter working week on a larger scale. But in sectors such as education, for example, it is inapplicable.
"It is related to many other issues such as the insurance system, the contributions paid to employees for a five-day week would be different from those for a four-day week," according to Jasmina Saraivanova, a Social Dialogue expert at the Bulgarian Industrial Association.
The idea depends on the development of technology and robotics of enterprises. But with significant investments, Japan and Spain are already experimenting with the shorter week.
