If Swedes can't make six-hour day work, who can?

Swedes looking forward to a six-hour work day just got some bad news: the costs outweigh the benefits.

A two-year experiment cutting working hours while maintaining pay levels for nurses at Svartedalen old people’s home in the Swedish city of Gothenburg is now nearing the end. The take away was largely positive, with nurses at the home feeling healthier, which reduced sick leave, and patient care improving.

But the city has no plans to make the measure permanent or broaden it to other facilities. To do that it would need much more money and even help from the national government. To cover the reduced hours for the 68 nurses at the home it had to hire 17 extra staff at a cost of about 12 million kronor (€1.26 million).

“It’s associated with higher costs, absolutely,” said Daniel Bernmar, a local left-wing politician responsible for running the municipality’s elderly care. “It’s far too expensive to carry out a general shortening of working hours within a reasonable time frame.”

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The Gothenburg experiment is just the latest in a series of shorter working day trials carried out in Sweden, a country that prides itself on its generous welfare state. The trial has been closely watched globally, with labour activists touting progressive Sweden as a role model in shortening working hours.

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While historical data shows that the length of average working days has fallen in Sweden over the past century, there are currently no plans to establish six-hour working days at a national level.

Still, the added hiring by the municipality has helped the coffers of the national government by reducing unemployment costs by 4.7 million kronor (€500,000) during the first 18 months of the trial due to new jobs, according to the interim report.

Bernmar says he’d like to see more studies into whether an abbreviated working day could also result in long-term gains for society as a whole. One argument is that it could allow people employed in labour-intensive professions to extend their working life.

“I personally believe in shorter working hours as a long-term solution,” he said. “The richer we become, the more we need to take advantage of that wealth in other ways than through a newer car or higher consumption.” – (Bloomberg)