The first four-day working week pilot test kicked off in Valencia this month. And it is thanks to four consecutive Bank holiday Mondays on 10th April (Easter Monday), 17th April (San Vicente Ferrer), 24th April (San Vicente Mártir changed from 22nd January) and 1st May (Labour Day), which will reduce Valencians' working hours to 32 over the next four weeks.
The City Council aims to test what happens regarding productivity, leisure activity, mobility, economy and health when applying this four-day working week, according to El Economista. The City Council's Las Naves innovation centre will analyse the results to reach the test's conclusions from 20th July.
This pilot test has been agreed with various sectors involved, including trade unions, businesses, neighbourhood organisations, institutions and other social agents. Moreover, the city council explains that similar tests have already been conducted in other countries such as Lithuania, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Germany, Sweden, Iceland, Portugal and Japan.
According to Efe, the pilot programme will study three main areas: health and social welfare, the climate emergency and the economy. But what will the City Council look at? It will analyse the use of time, work-life balance, the sense of well-being, rest, the impact of greenhouse gases, air quality, silence, energy consumption, traffic, the public transport network, inland tourism, the hotel industry, commerce and shopping, among other issues.
The Valencian regional government was the first in the country to decide to activate a pilot study of this type. In August, it announced that it would grant €9,611 per worker to each company that voluntarily reduced its working week by one day, as published in the 'Diari Oficial de la Generalitat' on 24th August.
This amount would be over three years (with €5,492 in the first year, €2,746 in the second and €1,373 in the third) and is equivalent to approximately one-fifth of a worker's annual salary, according to the Generalitat. However, to receive this subsidy, companies would have to reduce their working hours by 20% to 32 hours a week and maintain their salaries.