Christopher has arrived.On the eve of labour Day, the Ministry of Labour announced with pride that it would implement the pilot programme of the four-day work week. If this task were to enter into force, workers could, respectively, work 4 days a week on a full-time basis or 5 days on a shorter scale respectively. I get the impression that politicians are most satisfied with this idea. Traditionally, no 1 asks their opinion, and even “Solidarity” expressed a critical opinion,” writes Krzysztof Przybył, president of the Polish Promotional Emblem Foundation.
Are experiments with reduced working time truly more crucial than adapting the Polish labour marketplace to fresh challenges – specified as those related to the improvement of AI?
The company is not a state office
A four-day week of work, made by politicians, can yet bring at least 1 of the 2 expected effects. The first is an increase in the cost of operating companies. Ministerial officials do not want to remember that a private employer does not keep employees on the occupation without purpose, as frequently happens in state institutions with overemployment. He will have to, with specified a solution, hire more employees or limit his activity. And it is not the state that will reimburse him for his employment costs. The second possible effect is to reduce wages on the marketplace – to compensate for additional costs.
Supporters of a shorter working week point to abroad experiments that have shown the advantages of specified a solution. I do not question this data, but I would like to point out that it concerns mainly companies in sectors specified as consulting and public relations, and so very circumstantial industries. What about production, what about trade? Is it possible to show that a week of work little than a 5th will benefit, alternatively than burden, the owners of commercial establishments? I don't think so. What will happen in public administration? This section suffers from under-financing, as evidenced by low wages, which makes it hard to get a professional authoritative staff. So we're going to increase the budget deficit, we're going to reduce the authoritative salaries or we're just going to cut the office's moving time, and let the citizens worry?
Offices are not the biggest problem, but wellness care. Studies in Iceland have shown that a four-day week in the wellness sector represents a crucial increase in costs. It is either essential to pay more overtime (which shows how fictitious this would be) or to hire additional people. Public wellness care in Poland suffers from chronic under-financing, so adding another burden would simply be a kiss of death.
AI improvement is simply a major challenge
I do not realize why decision-makers are playing specified experiments, although there are far more serious challenges ahead of our labour market, with productivity growth and artificial intelligence improvement at the forefront. AI improvement can be compared to the industrial revolution over 2 centuries ago. More and more human activities can be done equally well and more effectively by artificial intelligence. If we do not want the side effects to be the same as in the case of the industrial revolution (i.e. full labour marketplace distortion), we request to prepare for this rationally. For example, forecasting prospects in peculiar professions and industries and supporting the acquisition of fresh skills by employees.
This, of course, is simply a more complex process than decreeping a shorter working week. Worse for the ruling, requiring real dialog and close cooperation with entrepreneurs, with which all power in our country has a greater or lesser problem. Therefore, I would urge you to put aside, for the moment, the populist and harmful projects for the developing economy, and to focus on what is crucial for the improvement and competitiveness of the Polish economy.
