Government plans to introduce a six-hour workday in Norway have ground to a halt, after a test project failed to yield the desired effects.
Norway’s left-center government had hoped that a shorter workday would encourage more senior workers to postpone retirement and stay on the job. That didn’t happen, reported newspaper Aftenposten this week, and the cabinet minister in charge, Rigmor Aasrud from the Labour Party, said there won’t be any further attempts during the current parliamentary period.
Opposition politicians from the Conservative Party, for example, said they were glad the debate over a six-hour workday would die out. They never thought the idea was a good one, given Norway’s labour shortage especially within the health care sector.
Politicians from the Socialist Left party (SV), part of the left-center government coalition, weren’t nearly as happy. They had promoted a six-hour day and have thus suffered another defeat.
Views and News staff
