What if you could work just four days a week but get paid for five?
That’s essentially what Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers, has been agitating for in ongoing labor talks in Detroit.
The reform-minded union leader envisions a 32-hour work week for 40 hours of pay, and overtime for anything more.
As wild as that might sound, he’s leaning on a concept that has captured the imagination of workers all over the world, thanks to widely publicized trials. Microsoft ran a month-long pilot in Japan in 2019 and reported hugely positive results, including a 40% increase in productivity. More recently, dozens of companies in the U.S., Canada, and Europe have participated in ongoing trials that have likewise been deemed successful.
But Fain’s push — alongside other “audacious demands” (Fain’s own words) the UAW has laid on the table — is noteworthy because of how radical a change it would represent.
“Our members are working 60, 70, even 80 hours a week just to make ends meet,” Fain said on a Facebook Live event last month. “That’s not a living. That’s barely surviving, and it needs to stop.”
I don’t think the results are going to be as drastic but my old company used to do analytics on our production floor alongside OT and workforce experience. Our goal would be something like 8-9 units per day to finish the week’s schedule.
For weeks we had less than 60hrs OT we typically hit our quota by noon Friday. Employees who had OT were more error-prone costing us time down the line and were much more likely to turnover.
It got to the point where we instituted an efficiency bonus. Basically, if the plant could consume less than ~60 hours of OT cumulatively and hit quota, the plant could go home around 2 or 3 pm on Friday and get paid an efficiency bonus on the next check. That bonus was pretty much as much if not more than you’d make doing overtime.
Management and workers got big bonuses too if they avoided any OSHA recordables for 30, 60, 90, and 120 days. Things like double production bonuses (so basically a second paycheck) plus special longer lunches, cookouts, happy hours, etc. And if you were a sales rep, sales manager, etc. with any theoretical impact on plant worker’s lives, your first few weeks have you out on the production floor training at every station. Then you have required QA where you inspect at least two units a day alongside plant workers.
Teaches you to respect the people who make you money and gives you a real understanding of what you are asking of when you try to squeeze more profits somewhere. You’ll have to face Jimmy in electrical who’s pissed that he had to stay late and miss his kid’s football game because you scheduled two specialty-wired units back to back for a small commission check. You realize you have to keep Jimmy happy though, because he’s been there 8 years and is 15 minutes faster per unit than the next best person. You keep your damn mouth shut when you see Jimmy taking an extra break. He earned it. You want more people like him. You invest in your workers. Even our billionaire owner knew that.
The place next door was like the exact opposite and corporate would never let them change policy so they kept losing workers every time we had openings. Like it’s not rocket science. You pay and treat your workers well and they make you a shit ton of money and everyone’s (mostly) happy.