The transport industry believes longer workdays are necessary in Finland. A truck is carrying the Lotto machine from YLE to MTV3 in November 2014. Picture: Tony Öhberg for Finland Today
Swede’s are trying a six-hour workday. In a hospital in Norrland, the employees will work six hours instead of eight and get paid fully.
This has raised discussion in Finland, too. Could the model work here?
Let’s start with the naysayers:
According to Markku Viitanen, a contract secretary at the Transport Workers’ Union, shorter workdays are not something the transport industry has considered.
“One cannot survive by doing a shift of six hours. Work is usually done for 15 hours,” Viitanen said to MTV News.
Maija Wilksman, an expert at Tehy, a union of health and social care professionals, however, welcomes the idea.
According to Wilksman, the tryout for shorter workdays is at the very least desirable.
This would benefit the idea of longer working careers and from the employers’ point of view, it would reduce sick leaves, increase effectiveness and lessen costs of not having to include a lunch break in the workday.
And if we think about it:
If it works in Sweden, why not in Finland?
