The Russian Ministry of Labor and Social Protection is going to temporarily introduce a four-day workweek at some facilities, Izvestia daily reports.
The experiment will involve organizations listed in the national project aimed at increasing productivity; among them are industrial, agrarian, construction and even research organizations. The experiment will allow the ministry to see the effect of the shortened workweek on the economy and the social area. If the experiment is successful, the ministry could decide to switch to the four-day workweek for the entire country.
Russian Deputy Minister of Economic Development Pyotr Zaselsky believes that employees at Russian enterprises “do not do anything” for the 30%-40% of the workday. Therefore, it is necessary to make all workdays as productive as possible. Vice-President of Delovaya Rossiya (Business Russia) public association Nikolai Ostarkov suggests testing the four-day week on state agencies considering that their labor management processes are often inefficient.