PN leader revives call for four-day week pilot in public sector

Opposition leader Alex Borg has revived a proposal to introduce a four-day working week, but only after it is tested in the public sector.

Speaking during a televised interview on the party’s television station Net TV, Borg said he believed Malta could adopt a four-day work week and he was willing to trial the idea within certain government departments before introducing it in the private sector as well.

“If we see an increase in efficiency, productivity and returns, then we will give the private sector incentives to introduce a four-day week,” Borg said.

He added this would lead to better work-life balance.

This is not a new concept for the Nationalist Party. In 2022, the Opposition had suggested the same idea to granting businesses incentives to participate in a national four-day week trial.

The Malta Council for Economic and Social Development had also proposed a similar trial the previous year.

However, Finance Minister Clyde Caruana had ruled out the suggestion at that point, saying the government would only discuss a four-day work week once worker productivity and skillsets improved.

No EU country has adopted a blanket four-day national work week with reduced total working hours for all employees, but Belgium stands out for legislating the right for workers to condense the standard week into four days without loss of pay, typically by working longer hours per day.

Poland recently announced a pilot programme to test shorter or more flexible workweeks. Germany, Spain and Portugal have run or are running trials on four-day workweeks in certain sectors. Lithuania offers a reduced workweek for public employees with children under three. In France, Denmark and the Netherlands, short workweeks and flexible schedules are common but there is no statutory nationwide four-day week.

Maltese workers are already some of the hardest working employees in the bloc clocking in more than 50 hours a week.