Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev met with President of RSPP Alexander Shokhin

   August 23, 2019 in Gorki near Moscow hosted a meeting of Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev with President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and entrepreneurs Alexander Shokhin.

Dmitry Medvedev has declared that considers possible transition to four-day work week in the future, but advised not to wait for this "right now" and do not understand the reasoning on this subject "too literally".

According to him, this transition should be accompanied by labor productivity growth, and the preservation of wages, so that should be taken into account the interests of both the employee and the employer. Accompanying this transition is the changes in labor legislation should be flexible and reflect the interests of those who want to work more, and those who want to work less, he said.

Medvedev also believes that such future changes, it is time to consider how the regulation of remote work and flexible schedule.

The Prime Minister recalled that recently in the country was a six-day working week, and it was considered the norm. "And now the norm is a five-day working week. But society evolves, technology is not standing still. That is why these issues appear in the agenda", - he said.

In his opinion, it is time to start discussing such changes in the workplace. He said he has already instructed the ministries to study their regulation, and plans to discuss them with the unions. He asked Alexander Shokhin connect to the discussion as head of the largest Association of employers.

Alexander Shokhin said that at first the idea of a four-day working week seemed to him too radical. However, he agreed to consider the situation comprehensively, taking into account the transformation of the technological base, productivity, change management. He added that workers should have a choice: to earn more income or have more free time.

RSPP is ready to engage in this work together with the government and to evaluate the position of all stakeholders, said Alexander Shokhin.