As the Swedish city of Gothenburg trials a six-hour working day, we ask: Can it work in Australia?

IMAGINE working six hours on full pay. Greater job satisfaction, more time with family and friends, less childcare fees, fewer sickies. Could it work?

See how happy they look? Council workers in the Swedish city of Gothenburg will be guinea

WORKERS in the Swedish city of Gothenburg are about to take part in an experiment, which, if successful, could revolutionise life for everyone struggling to juggle family and career.

Council staff have agreed to trial a six-hour working day for one year, believing it will create more jobs, increase productivity and reduce sick leave — thereby saving the country money in the long term.

Feel like banging your head against a wall after a loooong day in the office?

Leading the project is Mats Pilhem, the Left Party deputy mayor of Gothenburg, who says he is determined to succeed where others have failed when trialling the controversial model.

“If we share the jobs, more job opportunities will be created,” Mr Pilhem told news.com.au last night.

“The same amount of work has to be done, therefore more people will be hired. The project will lead to greatly reduced cost to the company for sick days, so it will be possible for employers to achieve this.”

Gothenburg’s Left Party deputy mayor Mats Pilhem: “It’s time to give this our best shot and see if it works.”

Mr Pilhem told news.com.au that two council departments would take part in the trial. One group will work a standard 40-hour week and the other a six-hour day or 30-hour week. Staff in both groups are to remain on full pay.

“We are still trying to work out all the specifics but the aim is to get the staff members taking fewer sick days and feeling better mentally and physically after they’ve worked shorter days,” he said.

According to the Australian Human Resources Institute, sickies cost the nation’s economy about $10 billion per year, with our 11 million workers taking an estimated three “unwarranted” days off every year.

But those “unwarranted” days do not necessarily involve sleeping off hangovers. There is a reason the phrase “mental health day” exists. Or if you have children and they get sick, sometimes there is no option but to take time off work because you can’t pack them off to school or childcare with a virus that’s going to fell the rest of their classmates.

You could do more of this with a shorter working day.

Could the six-hour working day put an end to all of these unhappy variables?

“We much prefer healthy and happy personnel than the other way around,” Mr Pilhem told news.com.au.

“People can benefit from this proposal in many ways. For example, they will be able to prioritise other things in life as their family or hobbies. Life is more than just work. This is also a feminism question, the stress and sick-leave affects women especially.”

Mr Pilhem said he had seen anecdotal evidence that longer shifts resulted in less efficiency. In some sectors, particularly involving care for disabled and the elderly, the problem was not staff shortages but people working inefficiently over longer shifts.

The deputy mayor said the local car factory had already experimented with shorter working hours and the results showed an increase in productivity.

Gothenburg city centre — it looks old but its citizens are forward thinking.

Charles Kenny, an internationally respected senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, wrote an article last year raving about the cult of the six-hour working day — and he’s done the research.

“The bottom line is that productivity — driven by technology and well-functioning markets — drives wealth far more than hours worked,” Mr Kenny wrote.

“Very few jobs in developed economies nowadays are classic assembly-line positions, where working 20 per cent longer will mechanically produce 20 per cent more widgets.

“Psychology plays a role here too: At least 40 years of studies suggest that people work harder if you limit their time to complete a certain task. In some cases, working too hard can actually reduce output.

“Long working hours are also associated with ill health, which means lost labour in the long term, as well as higher medical costs for employers and government.”

Tell us what you think — would the six-hour workday take off in Australia? Would we be happier and work harder? Leave a comment below.