New generations turning to four-day work week

In a four-day work week, workers work four days a week, eight hours a day, and are paid for five days.

Many companies in Croatia have introduced work from home, mainly in the IT sector which allows greater work flexibility.

The leader of the NHS union federation, Kresimir Sever, told the Croatian state news agency Hina that a four-day work week should not be organised in four ten-hour days.

"After a ten-hour work day, the person has no time for anything else that day," he said, adding that a four-day work week would be good only if work hours were reduced from 40 to 32, which he says would be hard to achieve in Croatia.

"Employers would not react well because even now they complain when we push for reducing work hours," he said. "We should strive for a work-life balance because a rested person who has time for themselves will probably reject other job offers even if they include a pay rise."

The Croatian Employers Association (HUP) said that introducing a four-day work week has been possible for a long time, but that under the Labour Act the full work week is 40 hours and an employer can divide them over four, five or six days.

"If there is an agreement between workers and employers to work 35 hours a week, or four days a week, we see no reason to prevent such organisation with legal provisions. However, the same should apply to an agreement, if there is interest on both sides, to also work more hours than is prescribed," HUP said.

The pandemic has accelerated digitalisation, bringing significant change to work organisation, such as remote work and more understanding for the work-life balance, HUP says.

Technological development has brought platform work, job and employee sharing, occasional work or voucher-based work, which are all types of work that are a reality and should not be administratively restricted, HUP added. "At the same time, we are faced with a considerable labour shortage, primarily due to demographic processes. In such a situation it's necessary to enable much greater flexibility, both for workers and employers."

Therefore, HUP insists on adopting new legislation that will mirror the actual situation on the labour market.

Since Croatia is tourism-oriented, shortening the work week is also difficult due to the labour shortage, the organisation said.

"All that should not prevent enterprises that are making progress in productivity and can offer more flexible work conditions from reducing the number of work days, thus investing in the satisfaction of their employees."

The work hours in Croatia include a daily break, which is not the case in most other EU countries, so Croatians formally work 37.5 hours a week, HUP added.

A survey by the 4 Day Week Global organisation, which covered 33 companies with a four-day week in the United States, Australia and Ireland, shows that satisfaction and productivity have increased by 8.4% over the six-month survey and by 37.55% on the year.