Carlos Slim calls for three-day working week to improve quality of life
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Version 0 of 1. Mexican billionaire tycoon, Carlos Slim, has called for the introduction of a three-day working week, offset by longer hours and a later retirement, as a way to improve people’s quality of life and create a more productive labour force. Slim made the comments when speaking to a business conference in Paraguay, suggesting that the workforce could be spread over a full week, with employees working up to 10 or 11 hours a day. “With three work days a week, we would have more time to relax; for quality of life,” the Financial Times reports Slim saying. The business conference, Growing Together – States and Enterprises, was held in Asuncion and was attended by business and political leaders from across Latin America. “Having four days [off] would be very important to generate new entertainment activities and other ways of being occupied,” Slim said. He said current retirement ages come from a time of lower life expectancies, and should rise to 70 or 75. Slim – routinely identified as one of the two richest people in the world – is the CEO of Telmex, a fixed phone line communications company which recently offered its employees a new form of contract. Telmex employees who joined in their teens can access early retirement, and anyone who wants to work beyond retirement can do so at full pay but a reduced load of four days a week. Slim, who is also the head of mining company Minera Frisco, is estimated to have a personal net worth of $80bn – around the same as Bill Gates. Some small companies in Australia have instigated a four-day week flexible workplace policy, and advocates cite improvements in employee health and environmental impact as possible benefits. |