Post by account_disabled on Feb 22, 2024 6:14:24 GMT -4
The Prime Minister of Finland, Sanna Marin, has encouraged the rest of the political forces to promote a reduction of the current eight-hour working day under the premise of an increase in productivity that compensates for the time that will be stopped from working . The announcement occurred during the opening speech of the congress of the Finnish Social Democratic Party (SDP), as reported by Reuters. Marin, who already floated the idea of a six-hour day before becoming prime minister, would have to convince the other four parties in her coalition to push for a reduction in the working day amid rising unemployment due to COVID-19 . 19. Finland currently has an unemployment rate of 7.8% , an increase of 1.1 percentage points from last year.
The most affected are young people under 25 years of age where the rate shoots up to 20.6%. "We need to create a clear vision and design concrete steps on how Finland can move towards shorter working hours and Finnish employees towards a better working life ," the 34-year-old leader told her party members. Read more: Many meetings and 48 more Lithuania Mobile Number List minutes: this is how the workday has changed since the pandemic began The idea of the Finnish leader is based on the fact that reducing working hours is possible through an increase in productivity . "This is not in conflict with strong public finances or the government's goal of raising Finland's activity rate from the current 73.7% to at least 75%," says Marin. Furthermore, he argues that the wealth generated by increased labor productivity has to be divided not only between owners and investors, but also between employees.
A proposal rejected by his own party However, his "vision" of a six-hour day did not resonate even among the members of his party, who before the end of the congress rejected by a majority the proposal to analyze this type of reduced day through a broad experiment, similar to that of basic income carried out in 2017 and 2018. On the other hand, a less ambitious initiative was carried out, the generic objective of which is to reduce working hours and make working life more flexible. Read more: "Implementing the 4-day week has increased our productivity tremendously," according to the entrepreneur who is driving its acceleration in Spain Marin has led Finland's center-left government since December 2019 , when an ally in the coalition forced his predecessor Antti Rinne to resign. Along with Rinne, who continued to chair the party until Sunday, Marin has increased pensions and canceled some of the previous government's spending cuts.