Italian luxury car manufacturer Lamborghini announced on December 5th that they will be partially introducing a four-day working week in their factories. Both male and female employees who work in two shifts will now only work for four days a week every other week. This will give them an additional 22 days off per year.

Employees who work three shifts, including the night shift, will have two four-day weeks and one five-day week. This means they will work 31 fewer days throughout the year.

The change in working conditions will not involve a reduction in wages. On the contrary, bonuses will increase by 50%, and workers will receive a one-off bonus of €1,000 in December. An additional 500 jobs will also be created.

This marks the end of negotiations between Lamborghini, owned by Volkswagen, and the Italian Industrial Trade Unions (FIM-CISL) and Metalworkers’ Federation (FIOM).

A large-scale research was conducted in the UK between June and December 2022 to study the impact of a four-day working week. Sixty-one companies from different industries, employment profiles and shift work participated in the research. After the six-month trial period, 56 companies (92%) opted to continue working four days a week. Out of these, 18 companies declared that this would be a permanent change.

The majority of employers reported no decrease in productivity. Employees reported that their well-being and work-life balance had improved. The data also showed that employees resigned significantly less often during the trial period, and the number of sick leaves also fell.

Under this programme, some employees had Wednesdays off while others had three-day weekends. For some employees, the extra day off appeared more important than a raise. 15% of the participants said that no amount of money would make them return to a five-day week.

Source: reuters.com