In Belgium, a four-day working week is already under way. There is no change in working hours and the amount of time worked.
"The federal government in Belgium has announced a decision for a four-day working week, which is yet to be discussed with trade unions, but negotiations are already advanced and are expected to take place soon," Boyana Achovski, secretary general of the Belgian Energy Association said.
She noted that the key word in the idea of a four-day work week is "flexibility" - this is what employees will get with this opportunity.
Iceland, Finland, Sweden and other countries already have such a practice, and there is a reduction in working hours in some places.
In our country, in Ruse, there is a company that introduced a reduced working week as an experiment 3 years ago.
In 2019, Petar Petev organized the work in his company so that his employees have three days off a week. The model proved to be successful and has been in operation for three years.
"As results, I can only list the positive ones, because from the very beginning there was a great motivation in the employees. The introduction of a four-day working week is one of the tools for motivating the employees," Petev said.
Despite the reduced working hours for the employees in this company, they have kept the amount of their salaries, and the employer finds that the staff turnover has disappeared and the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.
For Petar Petev, however, the model is not applicable to all industries.
The manager of a human resources company, Valentin Krastev, believes that for years this has been going in this direction - labor efficiency, reduction of working hours. But it must be thought of by industry, department, because the work and activities are different even in just one company.
He explained that a four-day work week does not mean one for the company, and employees will have one more day off in which someone will replace them. Krastev added that floating working hours have long been practiced in Bulgaria, filling 40 hours, but not necessarily in five days, and gave the example of working two every two days for 12 hours, which is even preferred because it gives more free time to employees.
"Hardly a four-day working week is possible for all branches, for all sectors, for all companies," said Jasmina Saraivanova, a Social Dialogue expert at the Bulgarian Industrial Association.
The specialist noted that the Bulgarian Labor Code provides many opportunities for the organization of working time.
"The standard is a five-day working week with an eight-hour working day, it has been worked out for years, but the new times require more flexible forms," she said.
According to Jasmina Saraivanova, the issue of the organization of working hours is best resolved at the enterprise level, according to the specifics of the activities.
