Day off, or day of work? (Illustration)
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Say ‘no’ to Sundays off
Op-ed: Shortened work week will mean that the wealthy celebrate while the poor work harder
Many years ago, when then-Prime Minister Levi Eshkol was presented with a proposal to shift to a five-day work week, he responded: First, let’s see Israelis working twice a week, then we shall shift to three days, four days, and from there to five days. These days, the question is whether the second day off
(in addition to Shabbat) will be Friday or Sunday.
More accurately, the question we are presented with is whether to shift to a five-day workweek (Sunday through Thursday) or to a four-and-half-day workweek (Friday is half a day in any case.)
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Day Off
Hassan Shaalan
Arab sector threaten protests, strikes over what they see as 'detrimental' initiative
Today, we can repeat the words of our third prime minister with a slight modification: First we shall work five days a week, and then we can talk about four and a half days a week.
There is no doubt here: We are a Jewish state. We cannot have a full day of work on Friday. Yet we sometimes forget that we are a democratic state too. One fifth of Israel’s citizens – a significant part of the workforce and an even greater portion of our students – are Muslim. The Muslim day of rest is Friday. This is the day where a significant part of our citizens pray. A democratic state must show consideration to its minorities.
And here is another argument: Even without an official government decision, Friday has already become a day of rest for many workers. In fact, most members of our economy work five days already, Sunday through Thursday.
As proven by Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman, people find it hard to give up something they already achieved. Hence, we shall welcome the declaration of Sunday as a day of rest, but we shall have trouble giving up our freedom on Friday. Will the economy be able to function with only four days of work per week?
And as to the infrastructure: Should the proposal be approved, our schools, offices and factories shall only operate four or four and a half days per week. On other days they shall be empty. In economic terms, we shall have to build them knowing that they will not be operating for almost half the week. Would that be economically feasible?
In practice, industrialists shall aim to take advantage of their factories on weekends as well, and people who are having trouble making ends meet will secure “an additional job” for the weekends (as is the case in America.)
And so, while the wealthy will celebrate a three-day weekend, the poor will be working seven days a week.
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