The government does not exclude public administration from observing a four-day working week

Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said this Wednesday that he does not rule out the possibility of extending the four-day working week for public administration, stressing that this could be a way of evaluating civil servants.

The Prime Minister took this position in response to Livre parliamentary leader Isabel Mendez Lopez’s remarks during a two-week parliamentary debate about the government’s willingness to extend the four-day working week to workers across the country, including in the public sector, following the release of the final report on the pilot project type of work week.

“As the report’s authors write, the question that will be asked will no longer be ‘should we or should we not introduce a four-day week’, but rather ‘is a four-day week a desirable, aspirational and empowering goal?’ And I leave you with a question: is it a desirable, promising and mobilizing goal or not?” asked the Livre deputy.

Luis Montenegro stated that he was following the issue “closely”, saying that he had no doubt about the added value and benefits of implementing this system, and recognized the possibility of its application in public administration.

“The question of doing it in government is a good question, it’s a question that I won’t be able to answer right now, but I will also tell you that I’m not ruling it out. Perhaps with the same weekly load,” the head of government said.

The Prime Minister emphasized that workload maintenance is “a simpler path from a human resource management point of view than the other path, which is to implement a similar measure and at the same time reduce the workload.”

Montenegro argued that this could be a way to reverse the difficulties in retaining workers in the public administration: “This is a very, very sensitive issue in our public administration, and as I have said in the debates on other issues, we also in the public administration have difficulties in attracting and retaining human resources.

He argued that realism was needed in approaching the topic, and said he believed “expertise could be gained from existing companies” and “whose activities are compatible and compatible with these changes.”

However, he recalled that this experience could make it difficult to attract investment and increase the country’s competitiveness.

“Right now, given the economic challenges we face in terms of growing our economy, attracting investment and being competitive, I think it will be very difficult to be compatible with many of those who could be our potential investors,” he added .