Sweden’s six-hour working day is too expensive and will be scrapped
The scheme saw 68 nurses at an old people’s home in Gothenburg have their eight-hour days cut in a bid to improve staff satisfaction, health and patient care. Preliminary results concluded that it achieved all of these aims, but the city had to employ an extra 17 staff, costing 12 million kroner. City officials have decided not to make the scheme permanent because of fears costs could spiral out-of-control. While the public sector may have shunned the idea, Sweden’s vibrant tech start-up scene may still be open to it. Filimundus, an app developer based in the capital Stockholm, introduced the six-hour day last year. “The eight-hour work day is not as effective as one would think,” the company’s chief executive Linus Feldt says. (The Independent)
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