Could the Czech Republic See a Four-Day Work Week?

In recent years, the discussion of a shortened work week or day has been a hot topic throughout Europe.

In 2014, the Swedish city of Gothenberg announced that it would launch a pilot program in one of the city’s elderly-care homes that would shorten the traditional working day of its nurses to six hours.

Despite the failure of the Gothenberg experiement, French politicians have been considering a shortened work week, too: Conservative presidential candidate Francois Fillon recently vowed to scrap the 35-hour work week.

Could the Czech Republic be the next country to attempt to shorten the work week? Perhaps, if the Czech political party TOP 09 has its way.

MP Markéta Adamová acknowledged that a four-day work week could be a reality for the Czech Republic in the relatively near future.

“But this is assuming that our economy transitions from an industry-oriented one to one focused on added-value, ideas, and experience and does not just remain an assembly-based economy like now,” she told reporters.

For his part, chairman Kalousek recalled the work week changing from five to six days during his childhood and said that, given the advances in digitalization and robotics, productivity could increase enough to allow for a gradual transition to a four-day work week.