Trade-offs needed in SA to make four-day week a reality

Jonathan Goldberg & Grant Wilkinson

Global Business Solutions

In April, the subject of a reduced working week for SA came up in a parliamentary Q&A session

A study conducted by researchers at Oxford University found SA has one of the longest working weeks in the world and this prompted the discussion

The government noted that research had previously been conducted into the state of the working week in SA

However, new data needed to be collected

The Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA) states that workers are allowed to work a maximum of 45 hours per week (this does not include overtime)

However, these stipulations do not apply to senior managers or those who earn above the threshold (as of March 1 2023 the threshold was set at R241,110 59 per year ) Under a collective agreement, working hours can be averaged out over four months

THE FOUR-DAY WORK WEEK IN SA

Although popularised in recent years, the notion of the four-day work week was around for most of the 20th century In 1928 economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that the 15-hour work week would become the norm in the next century

Fast forward to the 21st century and in many countries the shortened working week has been implemented with great success

For instance, in one of its Japanese subsidiaries, Micro- soft applied the four-day work week and productivity increased by 40% Overall, according to an article entitled Four-day work weeks are good for your health, a large study finds written by Jamie Ducharme, the fourday work week improves employees health by reducing anxiety and stress as well as enabling better sleep and more time for exercise The article appeared on the time com website A four-day work week could be applicable to some organisations Less time in meetings and more time to focus on outputs can get an organisation to that point

What SA cannot afford is a reduction in working time without an increase in productivity or a reduction in pay So, for instance, in a factory working in a sevenday shift cycle, you could have a shift system accommodating a four-day working week with fewer hours worked That would, however, have to be with reduced pay or a guaranteed increase in productivity Covid-19 pushed us into a new reality where South Africans and the world had to embrace technology and the new world of work While a four-day work week could be possible if the factors above are addressed, one suspects this would be a challenge to implement practically in the SA context across the variety of sectors operating here

As a result, it may be a journey rather than an event to get to this point But as Covid-19 showed us, never say never South Africans are innovative and resilient