In a landmark move, public and private companies in the Dominican Republic are preparing for a voluntary six-month pilot programme aimed at eventually creating a four-day work week.
The conversations about reducing the number of hours i.e. the workweek, have been around for a long time but were highlighted particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic when many employers were rethinking the importance of workplace flexibility.
Since then several countries including the United Kingdom, Portugal, and Spain, among others also launched trials to see if a four-day workweek could become a reality, and some have incorporated it.
About Dominican Republic’s plan
The initiative announced on Monday (Jan 15) will be launched next month, where the employees’ work hours will be reduced from 44 hours to 36 hours and they will only work from Monday to Thursday.
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According to the Dominican government, the fewer working hours will not affect the workers’ salaries. “It prioritises people, improving health and wellbeing, and promoting a sustainable and environmentally friendly productivity,” said the Labour Minister Luis Miguel de Camps.
As of now, companies in the Caribbean country allocate eight hours of work every weekday and another four on Saturdays. However, it is up to the employers to distribute the hours as they see fit, as long as it is not more than 44 hours a week.
Several public and private companies including Claro, a Latin American telecommunications company; power company EGE Haina; IMCA, a heavy equipment business; and the government’s national health insurance agency, are expected to participate in the pilot programme, according to the Associated Press.
The task to monitor and analyse the impact of this historic step has been given to a local university. The institute will check any health changes in workers and the relationship between work and their personal lives.
Countries that took similar steps
In recent years, several countries have taken similar steps. In February 2022, Belgium became the first country in Europe where workers won the right to perform a full workweek in four days instead of the usual five, without losing their salary.
Meanwhile, the UK, the footsteps of which the Dominican Republic is following, launched what was the world’s largest trial of a four-day workweek in 2023 and found positive results.
The trial in Britain also lasted for six months and involved around 61 companies and 3,300 employees, the results of which were studied by researchers at Cambridge and Oxford Universities and Boston College, as well as other advocacy groups.
In Chile, legislators approved a bill last year to reduce the work week from 45 to 40 hours. While in the United States, a number of companies have also switched to a shorter work week.
(With inputs from agencies)
