FOUR-DAY workweek as a measure to ease the monstrous vehicular traffic problem in Metro Manila? Will this measure work?
The four-day workweek is not a novel idea. This measure was already introduced and implemented years back as a cost-cutting intervention for the government. Though its implementation in most government agencies were only for a limited time, four-day workweek became the norm in the two chambers of the Philippine Congress.
The scheme has been working well for both the House of Representatives and the Senate, i.e. it reduced operating costs without sacrificing the quality and quantity of services, because of the nature of the institution’s operations. As sessions are usually from Mondays to Wednesdays only (as legislators do constituency works for the other days of the week), having a four-day workweek makes perfect operational sense for Congress.
The implementation of the proposed four-day workweek in both public and private organizations as a traffic solution to the traffic problem in Metro Manila should be anchored on the fundamental condition that it will not mean sacrificing the quality and quantity of operations or services.
If such proposed solution, for example, will mean lesser access of the public to government services or lesser time for business organizations to generate wealth for their shareholders, a problem greater than traffic will be created.
What may work is a four-day workweek scheme that calls for employees to work for lesser number of days.
The initial apprehension of militant labor groups that will mean a “disaster” for daily wage earners can be easily addressed by a policy that calls for the logical upward adjustment in the daily wage rate by 25 percent since working hours in a four-day workweek scheme will also be increased by 25 percent. The proposed four-day workweek does not mean lesser working hours per week (which is set by law to be 40) but only lesser number of working days.
In consider the four-day workweek proposal, it is best to look into what will employees do during their extra “day off.” The desired lesser volume of vehicles in Metro Manila roads can only be realized if the affected employees will stay home. If they will do activities that will require them to travel, the proposed measure will not be effective.
If employees with extra day off will still use the road, the proposed four-day workweek will have lesser effectiveness like the number-coding scheme, which did not really reduce the desired volume of vehicles as many car owners opted to buy an additional vehicle instead of using public transport on days that their vehicles are not allowed on the road.
(To be continued)
