Working-time reduction: from a weekly working-time reduction to a reduction of weekly working days?

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Summary Successive issues have shaped policies aimed at reducing working time since the mid-19th century, all of which led to the gradual construction of a standard working time, achieved during the post-Second World War period. With the rise in the 1980s onwards of non-standard hours and processes of work intensification and densification, this previously achieved standard was progressively destabilised, having harmful effects on workers’ health and well-being in a context marked by the growth of dual-earner couples and single-parent families. The Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated these difficulties, prompting many to question the place of work and to reassess the balance of various life domains. Against this backdrop, four-day-week trials were launched in several countries worldwide, yielding positive results for both employees and businesses. In revisiting the emergent conditions of the four-day week, we consider the main impacts and question the limits and overall scope of this approach to reducing working time.