PHILIPSBURG--The General Audit Chamber submitted its report entitled “Mini audit survey: The 36-hour work week option for civil servants” to Parliament on Wednesday.
A survey was distributed to civil servants of all ministries and the High Councils of State to gauge their level of interest on the topic of free time.
To acquire the second tranche of liquidity support, a reduction of 12.5 per cent of the total employment package of all employees in the (semi) public sector is necessary.
Even though the report does not use a statistically representative sample, it does provide an indication of the level of interest to voluntarily adopt a shorter workweek: 32 or 36 hours, instead of 40 hours a week. In total, 290 responses were acquired.
The Audit Chamber asked respondents to rate their level of agreement or disagreement with the statement, “Reducing my workweek hours would negatively affect my financial situation.” A total of 87 respondents (30 per cent) were indifferent or disagreed that reducing their work hours would negatively affect their financial situation.
The number of respondents who disagreed or were indifferent represents a potential structural savings of between NAf. 472,000 (in case of a 36-hour workweek) and NAf. 1 million (in case of a 32-hour workweek) for government. Assuming the level of such response (87 respondents, equalling 30 per cent) was present in the entire population of the civil service, a potential cost savings of NAf. 3 million could be achieved.
The report is published in both English and Dutch and is available on the website of the General Audit Chamber (www.arsxm.org), and via links on the General Audit Chamber’s social media platforms Facebook and LinkedIn.
