Four-day workweek not good for public, say
A FOUR-DAY work week scheme, if applied to government offices, will not be beneficial to the public because the delivery of services will be affected.
This is the initial reaction of the Pangasinan Human Resources Management and Development Office (HRMDO) to the proposal now pending in the House of Representatives.
“Ang benefit napakaganda. Pero tandaan natin na tayo ay nasa gobyerno, unahin natin ang ating mga kliyente,” said Janet Asis, officer-in-charge of the HRMDO, in a television interview last week.
The four-day workweek scheme is being proposed under the “Four-Day Work Week Act of 2011”, filed by Quezon City Rep. Winston Castelo. The proposed scheme is to shift from the current five-day, eight-hour work-week to a four-day, ten-hour work-week.
While Asis acknowledged that the plan could be beneficial to both private employers and employees particularly if the company operates on a quota-basis, a situation that could work on shorter working days.
“Kailangan may target, napakaganda kung ang opisina ay output oriented,” she said.
The Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), the largest labor group in the country, has expressed its opposition to the proposal saying it could prove disadvantageous to workers.
“Under present circumstances, a four-day work week will not help Filipino workers achieve a balance between work and life. The fact that many companies, especially in so-called special economic zones, are implementing this scheme on their own shows that workers will lose more than gain from this,” said KMU chairperson Elmer Labog in a statement posted on the group’s website.
“A four-hour workday will only bring about a loss of income for many of our workers who are not paid when they do not report for work. There won’t be enough rest for workers either because they will be made to work longer hours – which will cause a greater amount of physical stress,” he added. (with report from PIA-Pangasinan)
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