Spanish companies with fewer than 250 workers have one month to apply for the government’s pilot program to reduce the working week to four days with full pay, the government announced today.
The program of 9.6 million euros will be focused on small and medium-sized enterprises, the government announced, stating the conditions for participation in the project, which was first announced in December.
About 25 to 30 percent of employees will work at least 10 percent less hours for full pay. Employers will be partially compensated in the amount of up to 200,000 euros per applicant and for consulting costs for the development of new work schemes.
The government has until November to respond to applications, and companies are required to work according to this principle for at least two years, after which the results of their work will be revised.
Parallel, Valencia is piloting a four-day work week, and the city council has decreed that local holidays fall on four consecutive Mondays. for the entire population of the city of 800,000 people.
Following this program, the various impacts and consequences of the system, including fuel emissions and human well-being, will be analyzed and the results will be published by July.
In Britain, employees at 61 companies worked an average of 34 hours over four days from June to December 2022 on full pay in what was the world‘s biggest test of the four-day working week to date.
Most participants chose to keep it in what campaigners hailed as progress for a better work-life balance.
(Srna)