The hardest workers in Europe are Romanians
But the long-standing EU members – Belgium and France – occupy the last lines in the ranking. There they spend 38.6 and 38.4 hours per week at work, respectively.
Russia was not included in this ranking. But according to the Russian Labor Code, the working week should not exceed 40 hours. Unfortunately, there is no exact data on the length of the working week for this year yet, but if experts are to be believed, people in the country work an average of 39-40 hours. That is, at the maximum.
But this, we repeat, is on average. Many work 10 or even 12 hours a day. It is not difficult to understand what such hard work is connected with. Of course, some agree to overtime work for extra money. After all, according to the law, for extra work they must pay "for the first two hours not less than one and a half times, for subsequent hours - not less than double" (quote from the Labor Code). But in most cases, employers ignore the law. Therefore, many more people stay at work "for free" – because otherwise it is impossible.
"In 99% of such cases, a person agrees in order not to lose their job. After all, if refusing to do overtime becomes a habit, the employer will always be able to find a reason to fire such an employee and hire a more agreeable one in their place," explains Yevgeny Gontmakher, head of the Center for Social Policy at the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
And now times are especially difficult. In a crisis, people cling to their jobs and work overtime simply out of fear of losing their place.
Another nuance: you can spend round-the-clock hours at work, but the efficiency coefficient will remain low. Why is that?
"Productivity depends on working conditions, on the equipment at the enterprise. For example, in an office, no one will check whether you work for 8 hours or rest. The main thing is that the work is completed on time, and how much time you spent on it is no one's concern. Not so at a factory. If there is new equipment, you can conditionally produce 20 parts per day, but if the equipment is old, only 3, but labor costs can be the same," explains Yevgeny Gontmakher.
Ekaterina PETUKHOVA.
«Financial Izvestia»