Germany: launches a four-day working week pilot programme Quality of life at work On 21 September 2023, consulting firm Intrapenör and the 4 Day Week Global association will be piloting a project to reduce working hours while maintaining full pay. Roughly fifty companies are expected to take part in the programme.
Great Britain: Lloyds Banking Group offering a four-day working week option Quality of life at work During the summer, the UK’s Lloyds Banking Group (60,000 employees globally) launched its new Flexibility Works policy, which will enable its UK employees to compress a five-day working week into four days. The bank’s office-based employees will also be able to work remotely three days per week and from the workplace for the remaining two.
Four-day working week project starts in Brazil and ramps up in Portugal National legislation Already tested in a dozen countries, the four-day working week is now being introduced in Brazil, where it will be rolled out during Q3 2023. Employees in pilot companies will be able to work at 80% of working hours while maintaining 100% of their former salaries. Meanwhile, Portugal is starting the third phase of its four-day programme that was launched in 2022.
Italy: Intesa Sanpaolo agreement has been signed on the four-day working week and hybrid working National industrial relations The agreement signed between Intesa Sanpaolo and the Fabi, First-Cisl, Fisac-Cgil, Uilca and Unisin trade unions augments measures Italy's leading bank has been implementing since January 2023. In it, notably the four-day working week and agile working are to be trialled in a considerable number of the banking network’s branches, and conditions surrounding the right to disconnect are also clarified. Intesa Sanpaolo is Italy's largest private employer, with 74,000 employees.
Spain: entire city of Valencia tests the 4-day week for four consecutive weeks Initiatives from the public authorities and other stakeholders In a municipal decision, the city of Valencia will see all businesses and public administrations close every Monday from 10 April until 07 May. The aim of this experiment is to test the impact of the switch to a 32-hour week on urban life, mobility, work-life balance, and the well-being of its 795,000 inhabitants.
Great Britain: positive results for the four-day working week Quality of life at work More than 90% of UK companies that took part in the four-day working week trial have decided to continue with the new working pattern. The results of the six-month large-scale test indicate a reduction in burnouts and sickness absences as well as an increase in business revenues.
Great Britain: Atom Bank permanently adopts the shorter four-day working week Quality of life at work After more than a year of testing the four-day working week, UK online retail bank Atom Bank has decided to permanently implement the shorter working period. As a reminder,…
Italy: Intesa Sanpaolo officially launches the four-day working week Quality of life at work Despite a breakdown in negotiations with the trade unions, Italy's largest bank and largest private sector employer (74,000 employees) has decided to offer some of its employees the opportunity to voluntarily work a ‘short week’, meaning working nine hours per day for four days per week. Intesa Sanpaolo's ‘new organisational model,’ which comes into force in January 2023, also provides for a change in hybrid work.
Free Italy: Intesa Sanpaolo proposes a 4-day working week to trade unions Quality of life at work As part of Italy’s leading banking group’s negotiations on work flexibility that it has recently started with the trade union bodies, the bank has made a number of proposals,…
Belgium : federal parliament officially adopts the ‘job deal’ bill National legislation On 29 September Belgium’s parliament approved the ‘job deal’ bill that aims to adapt how work is organised in order to better suit current developments and to help achieve an employment rate of 80% by 2030. Among the bill’s main measures is the introduction of the four-day working week, the recognition of a right to disconnect, and the establishment of workplace accident protection for online platform workers.
