On Thursday, the 22nd of December, Latvia’s parliament decided to submit the collective initiative On a Four-day Work Week and 32-hour Work Week signed by 11 510 Latvian citizens to other committees for review.
The initiative will be reviewed by the Economic, Agricultural, Environmental and Regional Policy Committee; Social and Employment Matters Committee; Public Administration and Local Government Committee. The author of the initiative Deniss Meļehovs proposes amending Section 131 of the Labour Law, which dictates normal work time.
According to him, by increasing free time, it will be possible to improve employed people’s level of satisfaction and creativity without reducing their productivity.
Meļehovs says employees will have more time for education and personal development, which will have a positive effect on the economy. According to the archive of LETA, in 2019 the municipality of Odsherred in Denmark decided to transition to a four-day work week for a test period of three years, making Friday a weekend for 300 employed people in the municipality.
Also read: Saeima committee suggests for government to consider freezing wages of senior officials in Latvia