France Set to Trial Four-Day Week for Divorced Parents
France will offer divorced parents who share custody of their kids the opportunity to work four-day weeks as part of a trial scheme to be introduced later this year.
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal offered details of the plan to La Tribune, with civil servants in some government departments given the chance to work just four days a week when their children are staying in their homes from September.
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Attal introduced the idea in France’s finance ministry in 2022 and is now seeking to roll out the policy to the broader workforce in an effort to increase the quality of French working life, according to The Times.
A trial of a four-day week in Britain two years ago found that participating companies did not see a loss of productivity while workers reported lower stress levels and took fewer sick days. Germany launched its own four-day week pilot in February while other European countries, including Belgium, Portugal, and Spain, have also experimented with the concept to varying degrees.
Some experts have reportedly raised concerns that the French proposals could be difficult for smaller businesses if they were to be included in the policy, while the director of a Paris recruitment company said a four-day week should be offered to all parents as restricting access solely to those who are divorced creates “the possibility of discrimination.”
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