Taloustieteilijöiden suositus: Työviikon pituutta tulisi leikata huomattavasti
The Guardian uutisoi englantilaisten taloustieteilijöiden selvityksestä, jonka mukaan kasvavan työttömyyden ja työuupumuksen ratkaisuksi taloutta voitaisiin tehostaa ja työntekijöiden hyvinvointia lisätä järjestämällä työpaikkoja uusilla tavoilla.
On huomattavaa, miten monet ehdotuksista ovat samansuuntaisia osallisuustalouden ehdotusten, erityisesti tasapainotettujen työkokonaisuuksien esimerkin, kanssa. Näin saavutetaan runsaasti etuja, kuten tutkijoiden mainitsema työllisyyden sekä todennäköisen työtehokkuuden ja työn kannustavuuden kasvu. Lisäksi tämänkaltaiset järjestelyt on mahdollista sitoa esimerkiksi osallisuustalouden kaltaisin ratkaisuin laajemminkin soveltumaan nykytyöpaikkojen kapeita ratkaisuja paremmin yhteen demokraattisten ihanteiden kanssa.
The Guardian 8.1.2012
Cut the working week to a maximum of 20 hours, urge top economists
Britain is struggling to shrug off the credit crisis; overworked parents are stricken with guilt about barely seeing their offspring; carbon dioxide is belching into the atmosphere from our power-hungry offices and homes. In London on Wednesday, experts will gather to offer a novel solution to all of these problems at once: a shorter working week.
A thinktank, the New Economics Foundation (NEF), which has organised the event with the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics, argues that if everyone worked fewer hours – say, 20 or so a week – there would be more jobs to go round, employees could spend more time with their families and energy-hungry excess consumption would be curbed. Anna Coote, of NEF, said: "There's a great disequilibrium between people who have got too much paid work, and those who have got too little or none."
She argued that we need to think again about what constitutes economic success, and whether aiming to boost Britain's GDP growth rate should be the government's first priority: "Are we just living to work, and working to earn, and earning to consume? There's no evidence that if you have shorter working hours as the norm, you have a less successful economy: quite the reverse." She cited Germany and the Netherlands.
Robert Skidelsky, the Keynesian economist, who has written a forthcoming book with his son, Edward, entitled How Much Is Enough?, argued that rapid technological change means that even when the downturn is over there will be fewer jobs to go around in the years ahead. "The civilised answer should be work-sharing. The government should legislate a maximum working week."
Many economists once believed that as technology improved, boosting workers' productivity, people would choose to bank these benefits by working fewer hours and enjoying more leisure. Instead, working hours have got longer in many countries. The UK has the longest working week of any major European economy.
Skidelsky says politicians and economists need to think less about the pursuit of growth. "The real question for welfare today is not the GDP growth rate, but how income is divided."
Parents of young children already have the right to request flexible working, but the NEF would like to see job-sharing and alternative work patterns become much more widespread, and is calling on the government to make flexible working a default right for everyone.
[...]The New Economics Foundation (NEF), which has organised the event with the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics, argues that if everyone worked fewer hours – say, 20 or so a week – there would be more jobs to go round, employees could spend more time with their families and energy-hungry excess consumption would be curbed. Anna Coote, of NEF, said: "There's a great disequilibrium between people who have got too much paid work, and those who have got too little or none."Suosituksena on työtehtävien jakaminen laajemmin eri työntekijöiden kesken, sekä talouden kasvaneiden teholisien uudelleenjakaminen siten, että työntekijöille jäisi enemmän vapaa-aikaa. Näin työpaikkoja syntyisi enemmän, ja työntekijät todennäköisesti viihtyisivät paremmin. Lisäksi he todennäköisesti suoriutuisivat työtehtävistään järkevämmin neuvotelluissa olosuhteissa paremmin kuin nykyisissä, lähinnä yksipuolisesti sanelluissa ja pitkissä työviikoissa.
On huomattavaa, miten monet ehdotuksista ovat samansuuntaisia osallisuustalouden ehdotusten, erityisesti tasapainotettujen työkokonaisuuksien esimerkin, kanssa. Näin saavutetaan runsaasti etuja, kuten tutkijoiden mainitsema työllisyyden sekä todennäköisen työtehokkuuden ja työn kannustavuuden kasvu. Lisäksi tämänkaltaiset järjestelyt on mahdollista sitoa esimerkiksi osallisuustalouden kaltaisin ratkaisuin laajemminkin soveltumaan nykytyöpaikkojen kapeita ratkaisuja paremmin yhteen demokraattisten ihanteiden kanssa.
The Guardian 8.1.2012
Cut the working week to a maximum of 20 hours, urge top economists
Britain is struggling to shrug off the credit crisis; overworked parents are stricken with guilt about barely seeing their offspring; carbon dioxide is belching into the atmosphere from our power-hungry offices and homes. In London on Wednesday, experts will gather to offer a novel solution to all of these problems at once: a shorter working week.
A thinktank, the New Economics Foundation (NEF), which has organised the event with the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics, argues that if everyone worked fewer hours – say, 20 or so a week – there would be more jobs to go round, employees could spend more time with their families and energy-hungry excess consumption would be curbed. Anna Coote, of NEF, said: "There's a great disequilibrium between people who have got too much paid work, and those who have got too little or none."
She argued that we need to think again about what constitutes economic success, and whether aiming to boost Britain's GDP growth rate should be the government's first priority: "Are we just living to work, and working to earn, and earning to consume? There's no evidence that if you have shorter working hours as the norm, you have a less successful economy: quite the reverse." She cited Germany and the Netherlands.
Robert Skidelsky, the Keynesian economist, who has written a forthcoming book with his son, Edward, entitled How Much Is Enough?, argued that rapid technological change means that even when the downturn is over there will be fewer jobs to go around in the years ahead. "The civilised answer should be work-sharing. The government should legislate a maximum working week."
Many economists once believed that as technology improved, boosting workers' productivity, people would choose to bank these benefits by working fewer hours and enjoying more leisure. Instead, working hours have got longer in many countries. The UK has the longest working week of any major European economy.
Skidelsky says politicians and economists need to think less about the pursuit of growth. "The real question for welfare today is not the GDP growth rate, but how income is divided."
Parents of young children already have the right to request flexible working, but the NEF would like to see job-sharing and alternative work patterns become much more widespread, and is calling on the government to make flexible working a default right for everyone.