Fewer job hours can improve work-life balance

A couple of weeks ago, after industrial action not seen since the 1980s, German metal workers won the right to a 28-hour working week. Under the deal negotiated by the powerful IG Metall Union, workers will be allowed to reduce their duty hours to just 28 hours a week – or five and a half hours a day – for a temporary period of up to two years. After the period, they will return to the current norm of 35 hours a week. The agreement, that covers big employers such as Daimler, owners of Mercedes Benz and Bosch, was signed for the industrial province of Baden-Württemberg; but it is only a matter of time before the rest of Germany and perhaps rest of Europe adopts it. The labour victory comes in times of low unemployment and high growth in Germany, a good bargaining context for the unions. 

The demand for shorter hours of work is an old one based on the principle of the work-life balance. The German workers were demanding a shorter work-week to increase the time they needed to spend at home nursing the aged or to give more time to bringing up their kids. The union reportedly turned down a 6.8 per cent pay increase in favour of the reduced working week. In short, they were sacrificing earnings for a better quality of life. 

The grind in India

For some strange reason in India, especially among the millennials and the white-collars, long hours are part of work culture, and seen as ‘diligence’. Conversely, those who leave on time, or don’t burn the proverbial midnight oil, are labelled as work-shirkers or even laggards. The Boss wants to see you around when he enters the office; and when he leaves!India’s millennials, roughly defined as those who were born in the 1980s and 1990s, put in more work than any of their peers elsewhere in the world. In a ManpowerGroup survey in mid-2016 of 19,000 millennials in 25 countries, young Indian employees notched a punishing 52 hours per week on average, compared to the Chinese who did 48 hours and 41 hours in Australia and Britain. Indian law allows a maximum of 48 hours; in the US the norm is 40 hours, in Europe, 35 hours. Worse still, the Indian millennial thinks the brutal work routine is the ladder to prosperity and a promising career. 

For the Indian blue-collar worker, there is no choice. In large but unorganised industries like diamond cutting and polishing, textile and silk power looms and security guards, the norm is 12-hours-a-day, 72 hours a week. For the more organised sectors, it is 48 hours, with the eight-hour day defined as eight hours working and on the job, without breaks. 

Commercial sense

Empirical research has proven that long hours not only harm the quality of life of the worker, but also make production operations dangerous. The Germans have shown on the shop floor that shorter work routines improve productivity for the company, and spells economic growth for the economy. A century ago in 1920, the US Public Health Service survey of industrial accidents found fatigue and risk of accidents to be directly proportional, and that most accidents took place between the 6th hour of work and the 10th. In just that year, 1920, the number of industrial accidents touched 76,000 and the number of injuries short of death two million!

Over time, industry realised that shorter hours of work makes commercial sense, too. It spurs technological innovation; and lower fatigue increases productivity. Workers are also less likely to be hit by illness and job injuries. The German example showed that a 35-hour week, with a work culture that allowed no doodling resulted in higher productivity than the American 40-hour week. Beyond the economics, the work ethic has to allow time for education, family life and civic participation. That’s what gives flesh and blood to a democracy.

The German norm is a 25-30 day paid vacation annually; and the country is now considering a legal ban on all work-related emails after 6.00 pm to checkmate employers extending their hand through the smart phone. Canada has brought legislation for a 54-week maternity leave for the first child, going way past the global norm of three months. Despite grumbling by German industry, the latest 28-hour working week is the newest deal in improving quality of life. In India, we are still far away from these norms, but hopefully it will trigger discussion on the all-important work-life balance.

gurbir@newindianexpress.com

Working hours across various countries

Young Indians worked for 52 hours per week on an average, compared to 48 hours by Chinese worker, 41 hours by workers in Australia and Britain, 40 hours put in by American workers and 35 hours by Europeans, according to ManpowerGroup survey