A SUSTAINABLE ECONOMY
LIFE-AFFIRMING WORK
The reality is that many of the decent living-wage jobs are gone. Globalization of production and automation have changed the workplace. We can now produce all the goods and services we need with less and less of the workforce. Since the current philosophy is to push as many of the 25% unemployed/under-employed off employment insurance and social assistance, many no longer appear in the statistics. These people are considered either out of the workforce or voluntarily employed in part-time or low-wage work. In effect, the government is defining the problem out of existence! Innovation, higher education and skills-upgrading are very important, but they can only resolve a part of the bigger problem. Not everyone can obtain an advanced degree, especially with rapidly rising tuition fees. Over time this deeper level of unemployment/under-employment will grow if we do not begin to apply the appropriate policy solutions today.
The Green Party believes in directly facing this structural challenge, not rationalizing it away as "progress". A gradual plan to reduce the length of the work week and spread the work around is an idea whose time has come back. We have been through this before. In the late 19th century, when steam engines changed the workplace, the work week was reduced from 70 hours to 60 hours and then later, with further automation and political pressure, to 50 hours and then down to the present 40. The Green Party proposes reducing the average work-week further to four days (32 hours). This reduction would be done gradually, by one hour less, each year for eight years. This process would be combined with payroll-benefits work week reduction-incentives for private employers. Employees could choose to work longer than this new four-day work week, but overtime payments would begin to apply at 32 hours or four days a week. A reduced work week would give more workers a chance at good employment and their skills-upgrading would not have been undertaken in vain.
With a four-day work week, employees would be better rested and less stressed, with implications for daily productivity and innovation which would largely compensate for the lower quantity of time worked. Without the need to support so many employable adults on assistance programs, payroll and income taxes could be lowered. The net change in personal income after tax would not be that much. In return, employees would enjoy shorter workdays or longer weekends, less strain on health and family life, more time for fitness and recreation, greater opportunities for personal and community development, and reduced social stress from unemployment or fear of unemployment. The Green Party believes that the longer we delay in adjusting to a shorter work week, the more damage we do to our society and our health. We believe the workplace can be a healthy and satisfying place in which all workers can participate.
The Green Party would also promote:
- the doubling of maternity/parental leave to two years;
- healthcare leaves for working adults who have to care for sick children or other relatives;
- options for shorter workdays for parents of children under five years of age;
- options for more job-sharing;
- enhanced support for community-level sustainable economic development and employment initiatives.