In Luxembourg: More and more employees want to work less
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In LuxembourgMore and more employees have to work less
LUXEMBOURG – The Chamber of Employees has compiled figures on working time. More than 43% of employees nationwide would like to spend less time at work.
In 2021, 43.7% of employees in Luxembourg had to work less. This is almost 10 points more than in 2018 (32.8%), according to data compiled by the Chamber of Employees (CSL) and taken from QoW surveys on the quality of employment in the country. At the same time, the number of people wanting to work more increased from 10.3% to 12.4%. Finally, the proportion of employees who believe that they work just what is needed has fallen sharply, from 56.9% in 2018 to 43.9% in 2021.
Different figures depending on whether you are a man or a woman. Thus, 41.3% of men and 47.8% of women would like to work less. Concretely, women would like to work an average of 31 hours per week, men 32 hours. Not surprisingly, people working part-time are more likely to want to work more hours (24.9%) than those working full-time (9.9%).
“Better quality of life”
In the end, those who want to reduce their working hours want to work 8 hours less per week, the equivalent of an extra day off. “Employees who would like to work less tend to report worse working conditions than employees” who want to keep their contractual working time, notes the CSL. Who also notes differences according to age: “The oldest employees are those who indicate the fewest hours of work necessary per week”.
By compiling this data, the Chamber of Employees wants to contribute to the debate on working time, which has recently arisen in the public arena, with statements by the Minister of Labor or even a petition in this sense, who has hardcovereven if the idea does not please the bosses. However, “among the advantages of the reduction in working time, we cite above all a better quality of life”, recalls the CSL. “From the point of view of society as a whole, the reduction of working time also has advantages for the environment (…) and can even have positive effects on the unemployment rate and economic performance”.
(jw)