The president of the Balearic Government, Francina Armengol, announced yesterday that, if she is re-elected in office, in September she will launch a pilot plan so that 30 companies in the Balearic Islands can take advantage of the four-day working day (32 hours a week).
During yesterday’s visit to the tourist company Hotelbeds, in Mallorca, Armengol detailed that the project will be open to companies from all sectorsand that each of them will receive a subsidy of 15,000 euros for proposing this new work model, as well as advice from the Government plus 5,000 euros for each worker who takes part in this program during the first year, and 2,500 euros between the second and third year. In principle, a budget of two million euros has been planned.
In order to join this pilot project, interested companies must commit to maintain this new working day model for a minimum of three years and have at least five employees on this working day regime.
Armengol stressed that “the humanization of work” is an objective of his party and of the Balearic Government, since from the institution they aspire that “people do not live to work, but work to live”. In addition, he stressed that this new working day model is not only beneficial for the workers, but it is also “a very good proposal for the competitiveness of the company”.
“It has been more than demonstrated in companies that apply this 32-hour approach in various parts of the world that their competitiveness is much better because their workers have a more optimistic outlook and are able to work more intensely,” he explained.
Regarding the outlook for the high season in the Balearic Islands, Hotelbeds CEO Nicolas Huss said that “the tourist season is going to be very good according to all indicators”, something that will probably make them need to increase their staff, which has already grown by 1,000 employees in the last year. In total, Hotelbeds has more than 3,000 employees, 40 percent of whom work at the Palma headquarters.
The 4-day work week will be evaluated with a macro-survey and different municipal indicators
In addition, Huss pointed out that the initiatives that have been made in the Balearic Islands to boost the sector after the pandemics “are taken as a reference in the Mediterranean and other countries, where you always only hear good things about the initiatives of the Balearic Islands.” “The recovery has been brutal,” he said.
Finally, the conseller of Economic Model, Tourism and Labor, Iago Negueruela, stressed that Balears has clear the profile of tourists it is looking for, incentivizing the slowdown agreed with hoteliers, and implementing “pioneering measures that support the tourism sector.” “The fact that there are no more vacancies also means that tourists can enjoy our territory more,” also stressed the Minister of Tourism.
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