The publication last week of the comments by Mahir bin Saleh Jamal, chairman of the Makkah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, saying that a 40-hour workweek — equivalent to five days of work — would allegedly cost the country SR100 billion and 4 billion in lost hours of labor and production, was hyperbole.
Jamal claimed the shortening of the work week from six days to five days would adversely affect 10 million workers in the private sector because companies would be forced to cut the salaries of workers or even fire staff they could no longer afford to have onboard. Coming from the head of the MCCI these comments were not surprising, as he was defending the interests of business owners. “Others may fire their workers and seek cheaper staff, which would cause instability,” he said.
Public sector workers have had a five-day week now for several years and we have not witnessed the grinding to a halt of the government bureaucracy.
This scaremongering is unfortunately typical of our private sector. It seems profits at any cost, even if that means we have to use super-cheap foreign labor and make them work six days a week, is the dogma of our businessmen. They should realize that an economy and society based on such tactics, which I consider exploitative, would never be healthy or happy.
Many studies have been done showing that a shorter workweek makes workers more focused, productive and healthier. When one has six days in which to do a set amount of work, it can usually easily be fitted into just five days of work. And workers are healthier, both mentally and physically, when they have more leisure time to be with their families and to just relax and switch-off from the stress of daily working life. Healthier workers are more productive and nicer to their coworkers and bosses.
But this greedy attitude is not unique to Saudi Arabia. In the United States, the Walmart Corporation has built a retail empire based on cheap labor that is ruthlessly exploited and treated unfairly. That’s why their slogan “Always Low Prices” is ironic and Americans are waking up to the fact that these low everyday prices are only possible because most of their workforce is paid minimum wage and are never given enough working hours per week to work to qualify for health and retirement benefits.
Here in Brazil shops must pay their workers overtime to work on Sundays, which forced my local bakery to close on Sundays in order to save money. But here employers are obliged to pay social security taxes for every full-time employee, which greatly adds to overall labor costs. In the Kingdom we do not make businesses pay social security taxes on the salaries of foreign workers, so business owners have that advantage already when employing foreigners.
For sure the private sector would have some financial losses at the beginning of a 5-day workweek, but gains in productivity would quickly erase these and make it worthwhile. Happier, healthier and more productive workers are a win-win situation for both employers and employees. A study in Hong Kong found that a five-day workweek led to “a lower rate of absence due to sickness or work accidents,” because workers were recharged after resting from work.
Some companies in the West are even thinking of having a 4-day workweek, with 3-day weekends as a way of reducing stress in their workers and improving their productivity.
“The benefits of a six-month schedule with three-day weekends are obvious. But there’s one surprising effect of the changed schedule: Better work gets done in four days than in five. When there’s less time to work, you waste less time. When you have a compressed workweek, you tend to focus on what’s important. Constraining time encourages quality time,” wrote Jason Fried, the CEO of 37Signals, a software company, in the Aug. 18, 2012, issue of the New York Times.
It is high time that we took a serious look at the apparent and hidden costs of our system of using cheap foreign labor. It causes workers to be overworked, underpaid and tired all the time. Abroad it tarnishes our reputation. Our private sector should realize that we cannot depend on cheap foreign labor forever. And that what we wish for ourselves as Saudis, we must also wish for foreign workers. It’s the only fair and just thing to do.
—
The writer is a Saudi journalist based in Brazil.
