T&T Not Ready for Four-Day Work Week

• Given the challenges with the levels of productivity in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T), a four-day workweek may not be the best option for the country at this moment, according to the views of some of the country’s business leaders.
• Following the growing trend globally, Germany, Europe’s largest economy has just started a trial where employees from select companies will work for four days with the same salary. Similarly, in the Caribbean, The Dominican Republic and Barbados have also shifted to testing this model.
• The Employers’ Consultative Association (ECA), T&T’s largest employer-umbrella organisation in a statement to Sunday Business said it is not sure that the domestic economy is ready for the four-day workweek concept.
• “While in principle we are not opposed to the idea of a four-day work week, we are not certain that presently our economy is ready to embrace a shift of this magnitude and its potential challenges. The four-day work week has been mainly trialled within developed economies – which are often underpinned by high productivity rankings. Within the context of T&T, our mechanisms for measuring workplace productivity are lacking and so we do not have a full scope on where we stand as a nation.”
• The ECA also said that to its knowledge, no company in T&T has started such trials or has shown any interest in doing so.
• The ECA also noted that the success of a four-day workweek would depend on the robustness of existing labour policies that drive productivity, innovation, and competitiveness as well as the more implicit elements of a society such as norms and cultural values.

(Source: CariCris)