Between 2015 and 2019, Iceland, a pioneer in this field, experimented with a reduced work week on a large scale. Over the four-year period and conducted by both the city of Reykjavik and the Icelandic government, some 2,500 people, or more than 1% of the working population, participated in testing reduced working hours with no reduction in salary. Working hours for staff in day care centres and service centres were reduced from 40 to 35 or 36 hours per week. The measure was then applied to municipal employees as well as those in nursing homes and has been permanently adopted by some establishments since 2019. Teams were encouraged to work more efficiently by limiting meeting times, reorganizing their schedules, and improving communication between services and departments.
A positive result in Iceland. The first report on these trials, released on 04 July 2021 by the Association for Sustainability and Democracy (Alda) in Iceland and the British think tank Autonomy, shows that not only did productivity and service provision remain unchanged, or improve in most of the establishments that participated in the trial, but that worker well-being increased significantly across a range of indicators, from occupational perceived stress and burnout to health and work-life balance; and without incurring any additional cost to the Icelandic city council and government.
