Australia In Australia, the six-hour day and
four-day week is supported by the
Australian Greens.
Finland In 2020, the
Finnish Prime Minister
Sanna Marin advocated for a change towards implementing a six-hour working day. The result of a Finnish study showed positive effects. The
Communist Party of Finland is advocating for six-hour working day too.
Italy In Italy, the public sector used to have a schedule of 6 hours a day for 6 days a week, i.e. since 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday to Saturday. Public employees used to be paid less than their private colleagues, as they worked 36 hours per week instead of 40. When, starting in the 1980s, pressure increased for a 'long week-end', meaning a free Saturday, in most sectors the 6 hours of Saturdays were moved either by extending ending time at 3:12 p.m. or, most often, to two working afternoons of 3 hours each. This solution also prevents public employees to have a second job, that was previously considered acceptable. Present-day
Communist Party (Italy) advocates for a widespread six-hour workday. Their electoral result for
last parliament elections, however, has been as low as 0.09%, showing that this measure is not considered a priority by the electorate.
Norway The
Red Party (Norway) has advocated for a six-hour workday.
Sweden The 6 hour workday has been subject to reoccurring debate since the early 70's after the prominent sociologist and politician
Alva Myrdal proposed to implement it to
Sveriges socialdemokratiska kvinnoförbund. Today there are more than a few examples of companies which already have a 6 hour workday in Sweden, and the notion of a trend towards a six-hour workday has also been mentioned. Since 2002 there is a Toyota car mechanic with a six hour workday in the small town of
Mölndal. In
Gothenburg, an experiment with 70 nurses over 18 months found decreases in sick leave, better self-reported health as well as an increase in productivity, with a cost of 1.3 million USD. Two major parties support cutting the working hours in Sweden as of 2022. The party
Vänsterpartiet (The Left Party) is advocating a 6 hour working day without decreased pay.
Miljöpartiet de gröna (The Green Party) has the goal of a 30 hour workweek. and the
Communist Party (Sweden). According to a survey done by
Sifo in 2022 more than half of those surveyed would rather work fewer hours than get a pay raise. This tendency was stronger among surveyed women and those who self-reported as being likely to vote for Vänsterpartiet, Socialdemokraterna, or Miljöpartiet. The majority of Swedes are in favour of shorter working weeks, with the greatest support from women and people who are engaged in
blue-collar jobs.
Switzerland The
Swiss Party of Labour advocates for the introduction of a reduced working day (even though they ask for 35 hours, not 30). == See also ==