Labour Minister Sir Steadroy Benjamin has made it clear that the Gaston Browne administration is not currently considering the implementation of a four-day work week. In a recent statement, he emphasized the complexities surrounding such a proposal, including pay rates and the impact on existing labor agreements.
“It’s premature to even entertain this idea,” Benjamin said, assuring both employers and employees that the government has not adopted any policy on the matter.
While some countries have successfully trialed a shorter work week, Minister Benjamin expressed skepticism about its suitability for small nations like Antigua and Barbuda. “Perhaps in the future we may reconsider, but for now, it’s not on the table,” he added.
This weekend, Ralph Potter, President of the People’s Trade Union, indicated that a four-day work week would be among the topics he hopes to discuss with officials from the Labour Department.
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Well said mr minister, my sentiment exactly
UPP will consider it. Here goes a new election promise.
Imo, private companies who are able to do so without compromising their bottom line should implement the 4 day work week if they want.
A shorter work week will definitely push productivity for certain companies. I work in an office for a private business. Am I pushing work out every minute of these 8 hours? Absolutely Not. On a regular basis, my work for the day is usually stretched out so that I always have something to do during the course of the day. Otherwise, except for dealing with walk in customers or telephone calls, I can finish the bulk of my work in like 2-3 hours.
When we had the half day the other day, it went by so quickly, because I was just AT IT up till closing time at 12pm. I never slacked off, and was busy for almost every minute because I knew that I had to get the work done in a limited amount of time.
I understand that employers may feel like they’ll be getting the shorter end of the stick with less hours, but for SOME of these companies, productivity will definitely be boosted with a shorter week.
Perhaps we can explore shorter working hours and try it out first, cause except for a few select industries, a person REALLY doesn’t need to spend the bulk of their day working for other people, instead of actually living their life, and exploring or discovering their personal interests.
Just my 2 cents
If it’s the only time I agree with a minister it’s this time, one of the more sensible things said by the minister
Agreed for the first time ever, with a statement made by the AG. This country is too small and certainly the productivity level among the overstaffed 15 000 strong civil service is about 10%. Before you can even consider 4 day work week please consider the level of productivity. But is the tail wagging the dog? In the same news release where Mr. Potter made this suggestion, the Labour Commissioner agreed. Doesn’t she work under the authority of the Labour Ministry or is she a loose cannon?
This is a new discussion in Antigua and Barbuda and it is too early to dismiss the idea outright. No proper consideration has been given to concept. I note with interest that the Honourable Minister is not addressing the other issues raised like the national retirement age, national living wage and paternity leave. It is very easy to dismiss the most controversial item on this new Union’s agenda and to get people who have not engaged with the concept in depth to agree. There is need to have further discussion on all the issues raised by Mr. Potter, outright dismissal of ideas without proper discourse gets us nowhere.
I think a 4 day work week will most hard working people more tired. Don’t laugh or scoff. Keep reading. Hard working people will go and get a 2nd job. They will be more tired at both jobs trying to make more money chasing the dream of “making it”. … a few will kick back and do what is intended but the vast majority will in my opinion be doing a disservice to themselves as well as thier employers . You know good employers when you see them by looking at thier employees generally. Not always, but in general .
I guess Ralph Potter wants to entice workers to chose his newly found union to be there representative. So he just throws a bone to them and hope the discussion will start. But working shorter weeks comes with lots of other issues. Who will pay for the non productive hours. Just like working from home during Covid, lots of companies have now made it one of the benefits for their employees to work from home. And nowadays people not only work from home, but they work all over the world. You have sites like Indeed where you can find employment that doesn’t tie you to your country. Once you have internet you can work. You have people in India providing secretarial services for CEO’s in the USA. Or you have other providing accounting services with and only accounting application. I mean if one can do with one days pay less and the boss will agree with you on that, well why not. That gives you a day to live and do what you want. Like a long weekend. And this will ultimately lead to job work. Pay me for the work I’ve done, and not for my time spend at the office. Because i may be able to do the job in a shorter time and earn the same amount of money as if I worked a whole week. Hope we will get their soon.
The Money Hawk didn’t sniff anything in this, so he walked from the idea and left the Con Man to make a hurried statement.
This may not work for customer- facing jobs but those who work based on projects could definitely tailor their work patterns to support this.
A journalist does not need to work eight hours… they just need to write stories then bounce.
A marketer needs to plan and coordinate their strategies but do they need to even be in an office 8 hours a day?
Those who work in IT can do their routine checks and be given on- call allowance but do they have to be at work 5 days a week?
Sometimes, companies just have people burning electricity for longer than they need to.
Some are paid for their skill- set and what they can do which yields great results for their company. Not for slaving for 8 hours a day.
I think Cutie could have further engaged with the idea.
We are not only small, we are small- minded and that’s the problem.
Personally, I don’t see the point of the 4 day work week idea. If a particular private company wants to do this, that’s fine for them, but it wouldn’t necessarily work for every job or industry. A better idea is just more job flexibility at any time of the week. If a person is paid a salary for projects done, they could be required to spend a certain minimum number of hours per week on site whichever days and times work best for them but then they should be allowed to use their other hours as flexibly as they need. As long as they get the project done on time and do it well, who cares exactly where they work from or when? This would make offices cheaper to operate since employees would not need as much dedicated office space. They could use shared spaces when on site and then set up their own offices in their homes as they see fit. Persons could then “have a life”, take care of their families and so forth and still get their work done.
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