4-day work week: European country offers full-time employees in new deal

Belgian workers won the right to have a full work week in four days instead of the usual five without loss of pay, part of a deal that aims to make Belgium’s notoriously harsh labor market more resilient.

In Brussels on Tuesday Deputy Prime Minister and Labor Minister Pierre-Yves Dermigne said employers would still have the right to turn down employees’ requests for a shortened work week, provided they explain their refusal in writing.

It will be easier for companies to start evening and night work without prior consent from all labor unions.

“The goal is to give people and companies more freedom to arrange their working hours,” Prime Minister Alexander de Cru said in Brussels on Tuesday. “If you compare our country with others, you will often see that we are much less dynamic.”

Only 71 out of 100 Belgians aged 20 to 64 have jobs, which is below the euro-area average of about 73 and a full 10 percentage points lower than neighboring countries such as the Netherlands and Germany. Eurostat data for the third quarter of 2021.

Belgium’s seven-party federal coalition agreement set a target for an employment rate of 80% by 2030, a panacea that would work to keep its legal pension affordable or lead to tax cuts in the future.

The Belgian government also introduced new rules for platform workers, setting criteria for designating them as employees, regardless of what they are called for in their contracts. According to Social Affairs Minister Frank Vandenbrücke, Belgian legislation will be rolled out for gig workers on a proposal from the European Commission from December.

UK companies to start four-day week without pay cuts

The UK pilot of a four-day work week will begin in June with about 30 companies that have signed up for the trial so far. Firms in the six-month-long program will allow employees to work 32 hours per week, while their compensation and benefits remain unchanged.

Companies can ask employees to spread 32 hours over five days.

“Going to a four-day week would be a win-win for companies,” Joe Ryle, director of Four Day Week campaigns in the UK, said in a phone interview. “Studies have shown that improvements in productivity are accompanied by corresponding gains in workers’ well-being.”

Pilot in the UK is one of many around the world run by 4 Day Week Global, which advocates for shorter weeks. Similar programs are about to begin in the US and Ireland, with more planned for Canada, Australia and New Zealand, Ryle said.