六小時工作制? 瑞典試行六小時工作制

MunicipAl staff in Gothenburg will act as guinea pigs in a proposed push for six-hour workdays with full pay, with hopes that it will cut down on sick leave, boost efficiency, and ultimately save Sweden Money.

哥德堡政府工作人員作爲小白鼠正接受全薪六小時工作制測試，希望藉此減少員工請病假、提高工作效率，以縮減國家開支。

"We think it's time to give this a real shot in Sweden," Mats Pilhem, Left Party deputy mayor of Gothenburg, told The Local.

“我們認爲是時候給瑞典一個改變的機會了。”哥德堡左翼黨副市長馬茨•皮爾赫姆對Local網站說。

He explained that the municipal council would use two different departments - a test group and a control group, in essence. Staff in one section will cut down to six-hour days, while their colleagues in a different section stick to the ordinary forty-hour week. All employees will be given the same pay.

他解釋道，政府部門會分成兩部門——大致分爲一個測試組和一個實驗對照組。測試組工作人員工作時長縮減至六小時，而另一部門的員工則仍需堅持原本的每週工作四十小時。所有員工都會得到相同報酬。

"We'll compare the two afterwards and see how they differ. We hope to get the staff members taking fewer sick days and feeling better mentally and physically after they've worked shorter days," he said.

“我們會在測試後進行比較，看看他們有何不同。我們希望通過此舉能讓員工減少病假，身心更加健康。”他說。

Pilhem said he hoped the move would create more jobs, as he had seen evidence that longer shifts entailed less efficiency. In some sectors, such as social care, the problem was not staff shortages, he claimed, but people working inefficiently over longer shifts.

皮爾赫姆希望此舉能創造更多工作，因有證據顯示長時間工作會導致低效。在其他如社會福利等部門，問題不在於缺少僱員，而在於長時間工作制度中員工的工作效率較低。

He added that a Gothenburg car factory had recently tested the six-hour method and the results were encouraging.

他還說哥德堡一家汽車生產商已經測試了六小時工作制，效果喜人。

The opposition in the western city has reacted strongly to the test run.

西方城市的反對派對測試的進行反應強烈。

Maria Rydén of the Moderates, who also sits on the city council, told the Metro newspaper that the proposal was a "dishonest and populist ploy" with elections just around the corner. She added that she didn't think such a move would have any impact on quality.

同在市政局的溫和派Maria Rydén對《每日郵報》透露道，這個建議只是因大選在前而推出的虛假且有民粹主義的策略。她並不認爲這種改變會對員工質量有任何影響。

But Pilhem said the plan was nothing new.

但皮爾赫姆說到這項計劃並不算新。

"We've worked a long time on this, we've not planned it to be an election thing," he said. "These people are always against shortening hours."

“我們已經研究它很久了，並不是爲選舉而計劃的，”他說：“這些員工一直反對縮短時間。”

Various parts of Sweden have experimented with shorter working hours before, but the concept has yet to take off.

瑞典各處此前都開始過縮短工時的試驗，但尚未普及。