SINGAPORE authorities have granted workers the right to request a four-day week and more work-from-home days under a new flexible working guideline.

While not legally binding or mandatory for employers, the guideline is intended to encourage companies to adopt more flexible working patterns, a strategy other countries are introducing to attract talent.

A four-day week may not suit some companies and both employers and employees must ensure that work is done and companies are profitable, said Singapore’s Minister of Education and Minister of Manpower Gan Siow Huang.

If there are any detrimental effects from flexible working, both sides must discuss them and pay be adjusted as needed, the minister said.

A Singapore lawyer told Caixin that her law firm has implemented four-day working after the pandemic. “In fact, for us, it doesn’t matter how many days we work and where we work,” she said. “Work never ends anyway.”

Since the Covid pandemic, several European countries have introduced a four-day week. In a 2022 trial in the United Kingdom, 61 companies moved their 3,300 employees to a four-day week with no reduction in pay. After six months, 54 companies decided to continue and 18 declared it permanent, according to the think tank Automony.

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Companies taking part reported happier workers, lower turnover and greater efficiency. “Before and after” data shows that 39 per cent of employees were less stressed and 71 per cent had reduced levels of “burnout”. Levels of anxiety, fatigue and sleep issues decreased, while mental and physical health improved, Automony said.

Similar experiments in Belgium, New Zealand and Iceland showed positive results. In New Zealand participating companies excelled on business goals, with high employee engagement and a 34 per cent drop in absences.

Although employees favour the four-day week, it is not suitable for all sectors such as emergency services, public transport and logistics. Some workers may prefer the traditional five-day week and the overtime pay it brings. In health care, the shorter working week can lead to increased overtime costs or the need to hire extra staff.

Opponents argue that it could lead to lower incomes, make companies less attractive to investors and deprive people who want to work harder the freedom to do so.

If implemented on a voluntary basis, there are many factors that need consideration, such as industrial structure, the dynamic nature of the work itself and companies’ competitiveness, Wang Yaojing, assistant professor at Peking University’s School of Economics, told Caixin.

A 2022 study by the US National Bureau of Economic Research looked at work patterns from 1973 to 2018 and found the numbers working a four-day week had tripled to more than eight million.

The rise was not due to changes in demographics or industrial structure, but was more common among less educated, younger and white non-Hispanic workers, the study found.

With different governance systems, China should be cautious in copying the West when adopting flexible work, An Zengke, associate professor of human resource management at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, told Caixin.

China is a low-trust society, An pointed out. If workers adopt a four-day week, they may be deemed lazy by employers, he added. CAIXIN GLOBAL