Cut working week to 21 hours, urges think tank

G

GL!

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 14, 2010
Messages
196
Reaction score
0
The working week should be cut to 21 hours to help boost the economy and improve quality of life, a left-wing think tank has said.

The New Economics Foundation claimed in a report the reduction in hours would help to ease unemployment and overwork.

The think tank said people were working longer hours now than 30 years ago even though unemployment was at 2.5 million.
Click to expand...

source

I'm all for this, even for less pay. :)
 
GL! said:
source

I'm all for this, even for less pay. :)
Click to expand...

I Fail to understand the concept that the workers work longer hours now, so we have the reduce the work week to 21HOURS.

What is the Logic. a 40Hour week are now longer than a 40Hour week in the past??? :confused: :confused: :confused:

This will be killing the economy, as you say the people would not want a pay cut so the companies will have to employ more people/shifts. Thus higher labour/BENEFITS costs . Higher prices! :wtf:

Who is this Stink TANK?
 
Even if they cut wages in proportion to the cut in work hours, there are still other hidden costs like training all the new workers, and all the workers currently struggling financially on a 40 hour week will not give up 19 hours of work if there is a pay cut.
This will only really affect the poor working class, are they gonna cut engineers working hours to give all those unemployed engineers a job /sarcasm
 
I am Penguin said:
I Fail to understand the concept that the workers work longer hours now, so we have the reduce the work week to 21HOURS.

What is the Logic. a 40Hour week are now longer than a 40Hour week in the past??? :confused: :confused: :confused:

This will be killing the economy, as you say the people would not want a pay cut so the companies will have to employ more people/shifts. Thus higher labour/BENEFITS costs . Higher prices! :wtf:

Who is this Stink TANK?
Click to expand...

Agreed, more shifts cost more in overheads. Notwithstanding those with fewer hours are going to find that their transports costs have increased in proportion to their income, and the transport for additional shifts is going to increase public transport requirements, cause congestion and strain infrastructure. It would also reduce tax revenues.
 
Aren’t there more people employed by the municipalities since 1994, and these same people are providing less services than 1994? (Please correct me if I’m wrong)
 
Stupid idea. Hours worked=pay , less hours= less pay , less pay= lower standard of living , lower standard of living=more debt to keep up with the Jones.
 
Kosmik said:
Stupid idea. Hours worked=pay , less hours= less pay , less pay= lower standard of living , lower standard of living=more debt to keep up with the Jones.
Click to expand...

Hell, people are struggling to keep up with the cost of living, never mind the Jones. A pay cut to most would be a disaster. And another thing, I shudder to think what our municipal services would be like. Imagine them working half the time that they are working now.:wtf:

The moron who suggested this must have bought his education at Pick n Pay.
 
Cutting working hours in half, is not going do double employment, or productivity. Qualified people are not going to magically appear for these new positions.
 
Ronjay said:
Hell, people are struggling to keep up with the cost of living, never mind the Jones. A pay cut to most would be a disaster. And another thing, I shudder to think what our municipal services would be like. Imagine them working half the time that they are working now.:wtf:

The moron who suggested this must have bought his education at Pick n Pay.
Click to expand...
working half the time... what are you on about?
The municipal services should have twice as many people working for them.
Refuse is collected after hours in my neighbourhood. Surely, it's ridiculous that some people have to work overtime doing refuse collection whilst others sit at home unemployed.
 
Nod said:
Cutting working hours in half, is not going do double employment, or productivity. Qualified people are not going to magically appear for these new positions.
Click to expand...

In Gauteng we sit with a problem of people that spend up to 4 hours everday idling on the N1 freeway on their way to and from work. Working half a day would reduce travelling time, traffic conjestion, stress levels. Surely productivity will improve, no?
 
JungleBoy said:
working half the time... what are you on about?
The municipal services should have twice as many people working for them.
Refuse is collected after hours in my neighbourhood. Surely, it's ridiculous that some people have to work overtime doing refuse collection whilst others sit at home unemployed.
Click to expand...

Overtime is mostly worked because of the money, not because they have to.
I've seen this with contractors that work for Telkom too. They only have time on weekends to fix your problem.
In the case of the refuge collection, it is caused by the fact that they haven't picked up any refuge for weeks in certain areas.
 
JungleBoy said:
In Gauteng we sit with a problem of people that spend up to 4 hours everday idling on the N1 freeway on their way to and from work. Working half a day would reduce travelling time, traffic conjestion, stress levels. Surely productivity will improve, no?
Click to expand...

Wouldn't more effective public transport be a better solution?

I remember that there was suggestions to change starting times of certain industries to spread the peak traffic more. The big problem is everybody is starting at 8am. Working half day, might not change that starting time.
 
JungleBoy said:
working half the time... what are you on about?
The municipal services should have twice as many people working for them.
Refuse is collected after hours in my neighbourhood. Surely, it's ridiculous that some people have to work overtime doing refuse collection whilst others sit at home unemployed.
Click to expand...

Please man, the Municipalities can't afford to pay the employers they have now. Where are they going to get money from to employ all these extra workers?
 
This could work provided we extended working hours for municipal offices, banks, retailers, etc...
People would work shorter hours but but more people would be employed.
 
Ronjay said:
Please man, the Municipalities can't afford to pay the employers they have now. Where are they going to get money from to employ all these extra workers?
Click to expand...

They currently pay them overtime which is 1.5 the normal time...where are they finding the money for overtime?
 
This kind of thing has already been happening so people can keep their jobs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X