High time for more long weekends
A standard four-day week is a big ask, but we could start with a few more of them, writes Tony Veal.
Anzac Day this year fell on a Sunday. In New Zealand, this means today is a public holiday, making a long weekend, but that’s not the case in Australia.
Reducing working hours has long been campaigned for as enhancing workers’ health and wellbeing, as one way of securing for workers a fair share of increasing productivity in the economy and, indeed, as a way of boosting productivity through reductions in fatigue, stress and absenteeism.
The productivity of the workforce today is many times what it was when the typical working week was 72 hours, there were only two or three public holidays a year, and no paid annual leave.
While there is much talk of four-day weeks, this is a big ask, basically seeking about 40 additional days off a year. Aiming for some additional long weekends might be a more feasible initial step. Bear in mind that increasing annual leave entitlements from one to four weeks a year took several decades in the middle of the last century. A single additional day off would represent less than 0.5 per cent of total annual days worked. Even in relatively slow years, productivity gains would more than make up for any loss in production, if there was any.
Of course such a move would be resisted by some employers, but all moves to reduce working hours or increase holidays over the past 150 years have met with such resistance. Furthermore, countries with comparatively low numbers of hours worked, such as Germany and Scandinavia, are as economically productive as those with comparatively long hours of work, such as Japan and the United States.
In Australia, public holidays are designated by the states and territories, apart from Australia Day and Anzac Day. Tasmania has only nine, while Victoria, ACT and Northern Territory have 11. The rest have 10.
There is clearly room for some reform of a system split mostly between religious, regional and royal holidays. South Australia and Victoria also have sporting cup days. The focus, however, is not reforming the whole system but considering the possibility of adding additional long weekends.
So what are the options for new public holidays? Two possibilities come to mind.
First, one of the existing United Nations-designated international celebratory days could be designated as a public holiday – for example, International Women’s Day (March 8) and/or the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples (August 9). Campaigns for such holidays might gain the support of relevant organised groups.
The second possibility is to identify one or more national heroes worthy of celebration. Around the world, such public holidays are common – Martin Luther King Day in US, Nelson Mandela Day in South Africa. However, this option would likely cause controversy, regardless of who was chosen.
In a country which, in 1978, author Ronald Conway referred to as the Land of the Long Weekend, is it necessary to have an excuse for a holiday? Picnic days (Northern Territory) and bank holidays (New South Wales, inheriting a British tradition) just seem to indicate that it’s time for a break.
Surely the long winter month of July, with no holidays anywhere, is deserving of a long weekend? – Sydney Morning Herald