4-day working week, 3-day weekend experiment kicks off in Kaduna

The Kaduna State government announced on Monday, November 29, 2021 that a transitional arrangement to implement four-day working weeks will commence this week.

The interim phase of the arrangement will start on Wednesday, December 1, with public servants mandated to work remotely on Fridays.

It is expected to pave the way for the government to eventually fully transition into four-day working weeks across all MDAs.

"This measure is designed to help boost productivity, improve work-life balance and enable workers to have more time for their families, for rest, and for agriculture," Governor Nasir El-Rufai's spokesperson, Muyiwa Adekeye, said.

The interim phase will not affect public servants in emergency services, education, and health systems who are expected to continue to deliver services 24 hours a day, seven days a week during the transition and beyond.

Adekeye said the government will speed up efforts to give public servants access to digital devices and platforms to enable them work effectively from home.

The trial will start in the public service, but the organised private sector is expected to engage with the process.

A renegotiation of working patterns, especially number of work days per week, has been subjected to debates across the world, but hardly in Nigeria.

Similar trials such as in Kaduna have been run in Iceland, Spain, and New Zealand.

Legal and regulatory framework for the Kaduna transition is expected to be in place by January 2022.