The New Trend of A 4 Day Working!
Karma Global Rebuilds Compliances for Businesses with Robust Integration as Cost of Non Compliances Could Be More Than Cost of Compliances!!!!!
Karma Global one of the top 5 labour law consulting firms in the country, has recently hit upon yet another significant milestone in the journey of tying up with SUNDEEP PURI ASSOCIATES AND ADVOCATE, where both these Firms have formally joined hands together to collaborate and create a bigger alliance by scaling up its business on Pan India basis and Internationally to give greater reach of its services together, to its hundreds of clients all over.
The pandemic has changed the very way we do business, disrupting everything from global supply chains to financial markets which subsequently paved the way for change, new adaptations and rebuilding of business models with compliance being at the at the heart of this change.
In this context, the Enterprises too need a change in mind-set for those who want to remain on the right side of the law. “If the government can change, Corporate and Corporations need to be faster than the regulatory authorities in changing their mind-set in this automation game.
Only a few years back, we had compliance people to check and update on compliance conforming to the prevailing laws but now the nature of work is changing and we have the platforms that put all the dates, and laws in the form of a checklist for us, which comes as a lifesaver,”
At present, not all but most of the companies have woken up to the reality of this changing compliance landscape with the announcement of the new labour codes and with it there is a growing trend towards digitization to improve compliance and ensure that organizations are saved from the stiff penalties imposed on defaulters. “Every other day you have a different regulation change happening across numerous States, recent example with Chhattisgarh going in for old pension while other States are opting for new pension.
We have many vendors who are going towards digitalization to track these compliance and regulation changes,” and Karma Global is proud to have adopted the new AI technology and automation much before others could even think about it. With the changing notifications from the government, and requirement of reporting real-time data to authorities on month / quarterly /half yearly and annual basis, it is technology that has set new standards and disrupted the traditional methods and practices.
An increasing number of companies today are using a mix of internal and externally developed technology tools to keep pace with the fast changing compliance landscape and are standing with Karma Global for its state of the art “WeProcess” and “WeChecked” tools that offer advanced features, chat bots, machine learning, single up loading of all documents, and final evaluation together with remediation of non-compliance.
“The compliance scenario in India has gone so far that everything is interconnected. One failure somewhere is going to reflect in many records. We see the government rolling things out step by step to make sure that they have a more robust compliance mechanism and a compliance driven economy.
So in this regard, besides the business profile of Karma Global relating to labour laws, it will now focus whole time also on legal and para legal issues and matters with the collaboration of Sundeep Puri & Associates who are already into legal matters such as disputes, litigation, and court cases.
THE NEW TREND OF A 4 DAY WORKING!
How did this concept get evolved?
Thanks to the global pandemic, work from home, hybrid working, and remote working aren’t alien concepts anymore. As many employees continue and prefer to work in different formats, many companies are struggling to offer remote working or even hybrid due to the nature of work involved. To meet such challenges, the Government of India announced the four new sets of labour laws and one of labour codes gave rise to a 4-day work week which will also entail an increase in work hours, a change in PF contributions, and an impact on take-home salary.
4-day work week: A new and trend and experiment:
As and when the new Labour laws get implemented, instead of the standard five-day work week, companies will be able to permit their staff to work four days per week. However, employees who choose a 4-day work week will have to clock 12 hours per day instead of the usual 8-9 hours. This law covers every industry, but it may be modified in accordance with state regulations.
Under the existing system, Indian companies may encounter difficulties implementing a four-day work week since they may be required to pay employees overtime for the extra hours. Companies covered by the Factories Act cannot require their employees to work more than nine hours per day or 48 hours per week unless and until the State Assembly amends the respective factories Act in their own State.
Let us see where all it is happening around the world!
4-day work week: Global Perspective
The workplace culture has changed significantly over the last two years, but the most critical change that individuals may observe in the near future is getting paid in full for working 80% of the time while retaining 100% productivity.
The world’s biggest trial of the four-day work week was flagged off in the UK with more than 3300+ employees from 70 companies, from financial service providers to small restaurants.
Later this year, government-backed four-day week trials are also scheduled to start in Scotland and Spain.
Before this, Iceland received credit for the largest shorter workweek pilot. It took place from 2015 to 2019. With 2,500 employees from the public sector, there were two sizable trials. The research revealed no decrease in productivity but a sharp improvement in employee wellbeing.
Employees in Belgium will now have the option of working a 4-day week. The concept has been tested by a number of countries and businesses, and it is gaining popularity in many places of the world.
Four days in the office, three days with friends and family! And it’s all for the same amount. What’s not to appreciate about that?
Scotland is likewise experimenting with the four-day work week, with the government providing over £10 million (around $13.6 million) in support to participating businesses.
In 2015, Sweden experimented with a four-day work week with full pay, with mixed results. Even left-wing parties believed that implementing this on a big scale would be too expensive.
On the request of the left-wing party Mas Pais, the four-day working week will likewise be tested in Spain. Approximately 6,000 employees from 200 small and medium-sized businesses will be able to extend their weekend by one day at no cost. The trial phase is expected to last at least a year, but the exact start date has yet to be determined.
Smaller start-ups in Germany are the ones that are experimenting with a shortened work week. However, in other nations, such as Japan, larger corporations are foraying into this territory: For a month, Microsoft, for example, experimented with the approach by granting staff three-day weekends.
Unilever, the consumer products behemoth in New Zealand, is now experimenting with a four-day work week at full pay. If the trial is successful, it is expected to be expanded to other nations.
What does the new provision in the labour law says?
Under the new provision of Labour laws, instead of the standard five-day work week, companies can permit their staff to work four days per week. However, employees who choose a 4-day work week will have to clock 12 hours per day instead of the usual 8-9 hours.
Will it work in India?
Amid the global discussion about a four-day work week, many people in India are also hopeful because the government developed new labour laws which was aimed to be implemented in due time.
The Centre developed four new labour codes that will significantly alter employee pay, PF contributions, and working hours.
Not all industries will experience this change in the same way.
While it is simple to implement in corporate offices in sectors like technology, banking, insurance, and e-commerce, shifting to a four-day work week for industries like manufacturing, agriculture, and healthcare would not be possible. In the manufacturing industry, for example, where continuous operations are carried out in a cyclical fashion, 12-hour shifts may provide challenges, and it is not humanely conceivable for factory workers to operate in a repetitive mode for such a long period.
Industries like agriculture and healthcare require ongoing care, so they can’t function properly with a four-day work week.
On the other hand, by adopting the rules of the new labour standards and giving some degree of transparency to these sectors, this working paradigm can assist the unorganized sector where employees are already putting in 12 hours or more each day.
A 4-day work week certainly offers numerous benefits, and the success of the pilot studies has also worked in its favour.
In India, a blanket cover of 4-day work week might be challenging given the large size of unorganized sectors and the percentage of the population it employs.
CONCLUSION – The debate will go on until all stakeholder make efforts to evolve and resolve
The debate on the 5-day workweek versus 4-day work week in India is not new. Government officials have been in conversation with companies regarding the pros and cons of extending the work hours and keeping business operations shut for 72 hours every week.
Depending on the recommendations received from the stakeholders, the government will be required to reach a consensus in order to release the rules for the new laws and in all probability, this will happen after 2024.
Karma Global works across a wide variety of industries, constantly looking for ways to offer new services and increase its global businesses.
In order to serve today’s technology to tech savvy clients and employees, Karma Global planned much ahead of its time by adapting to processes and systems to accommodate the quickly changing markets.
As Industry is continuing to get more and more competitive, Karma Global is bridging the gap, setting itself in tune with the latest technology trends in order to maintain a competitive advantage for all its over 400 domestic and global clients.
Automation and AI – Karma Global was among the first to improve efficiencies, the first in the vendor auditing process to fully automate and streamline any and all processes surrounding the auditing business of entity and vendors.
The chat bot and AI did a fabulous job of giving machine output, with a quicker pace, cheaper rate, and more accurate level of auditing and reporting.
This helped in elevating the roles of our Auditors to focus on complex tasks that require more brainpower or the human touch, leaving some of its task to the capabilities of the machine.
Incorporating chat bots in customer service allowed time for our expert representatives to spend time dealing with more complex issues which could ultimately add to the user experience and this is what set us apart from others.
Automating repetitive processes in our systems helped us free the valuable time of our expert staff allowing them to reach out to more clients.
For this purpose, Karma Global has both full time IT related staff and also indirect staff who are freelancing with us for enhancing our IT capabilities to the next level on the cloud platform.
Also, clients with issues such as litigation, disputes, closure, lockdown, retrenchment and layoffs could take the help of Karma Global in sorting this out since it now has a formidable partner by the name of Sundeep Puri & Associates to provide further solutions on such or any legal entanglements.
Proprietary blog of Karma Global Tech Management LLC
This blog has been collated and compiled by the internal staff of Karma Global with the knowledge and expertise that they possess, besides adaptation, illustration, derivation, transformation, collection as well as auto generation from various sources, for its monthly newsletter Issue 11 of May 2023 and in case of specific or general information or compliance updates for that matter, kindly reach out to the
Marketing Team – Kush@karmamgmt.com / yashika@karmamgmt.com