Who came up with the 5 day work week? Weekends in the USSR. working six days. How many working days are there in a week?

Working hours are the distribution of working hours during a certain calendar period. The regime may be the same for all employees of the company, or may vary for different categories of employees. There are regular working hours, which are established for all or the majority of workers in the company, and special working hours, which differ from the usual working hours or the distribution of working hours. These include, for example, shift work or a flexible schedule. Today we will talk about the standard five-day workweek: how many hours does a five-day work week last, how many days off are employees entitled to, etc.

  • How many hours is a five-day work week?

The normal duration (standard hours) of a five-day working week is 40 hours. This norm does not depend on the following factors:

  • organizational and legal form of the company;
  • working hours (for example, flexible work or a standard five-day workweek)

Since the number of working hours in a five-day workweek is 40 hours, one working day is typically eight hours.

Payment for days off during a five-day work week

With a 5-day work week, workers are provided with two days off per week; the usual days off are Saturday and Sunday, and rarely Sunday and Monday. In some cases, the employer may establish a work schedule at the enterprise in which generally accepted weekends are working days. For example, during shift work, weekends are set by the shift schedule and are “floating”, that is, they can fall on different days weeks, taking into account alternating shifts. Sometimes the following situations occur: an employee works on a standard schedule of a five-day workweek with two days off, but the employer needs the employee to go to work on his day off. To do this, the following conditions must be met.

  • In order for employees to go to work on their day off, the employer must have a legal basis;
  • the employee’s written consent will be required (exceptions are provided);
  • it is necessary to take into account the opinion of the trade union (in some cases established by law);
  • You will need a written order from the employer.

It is worth keeping in mind that the payment for “working” days off with a five-day work week will be increased, or you can compensate for them with a day of rest additionally provided to the employee. However, in in this case There are also exceptions: they apply to employees with whom an employment contract has been concluded for a period of up to 2 months. In this case, if you ask an employee to go to work on his day off, you can only compensate for his work in monetary terms and at least double the amount.

Order on the transition to a five-day working week

If you want to increase or decrease the length of the working week, you must adhere to the following procedure:

1. Issue an order to switch to a different work schedule (five-day working week). The order must be drawn up in free form.

The order must indicate:

  • a list of positions, professions or individual employees for which a new work schedule is established, for example, a five-day work week;
  • the procedure for introducing a five-day working week;
  • a list of employees who are responsible for the introduction of a five-day working week;
  • deadlines for order execution.

Employees, if they switch to a new work schedule, must be familiarized with the order.

An example of an order to switch to a five-day work week:

2. Establish a different length of the working week (for example, five days or six days) in the internal labor regulations (collective agreement). Changes to the Internal Labor Regulations are formalized by order of the head of the enterprise or a person authorized by him, and in a collective agreement - by an additional agreement to it. All employees must be familiarized with all changes made to the Internal Labor Regulations or their new edition by signature.

3. Reflect the transition to a different length of the working week in employment contracts with employees for whom it is established, by drawing up additional agreements to employment contracts.

You can count a work week and a work day. This is the total time a worker spends at work in a week or one day. These standards should be regulated by law based on the production process and natural human needs for recreation.

Different countries have their own labor standards and the legislative framework in this area. Let's look at the most “hardworking” countries and those with minimum working week standards.

Working week in the Labor Code

Working time is the time that a worker spends performing his direct labor duties established by the employment contract. It is regulated by the regulations of a particular enterprise.

The working week in days calculates the time that a person should spend at his workplace. But there is another principle of calculation. The hourly workweek shows the total number of working hours in a calendar week. These two concepts are most often used in everyday life.

  • how many working days are there in a week;
  • how many hours are there in each working day?

The product of these two indicators will give the desired figure, but if one of the days is shortened, for example, Saturday, then you need to subtract these shortened hours. For example, 5 days of 8 hours of work would constitute a standard 40-hour week.

Working week norms are prescribed by law ( Labor Code) and in employment contracts. So, in Art. 91 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation states that the working week should be no more than 40 hours. For those who are officially employed, according to the collective labor agreement, this is the maximum number of working hours per week, which are paid at the normal rate. Overtime, namely over 40 working hours per week, must be paid at different rates.

How many working days are there in a week?

There is a standard five-day work week. With this schedule, the weekends are Saturday and Sunday. There is also a six-day work week with only one day off – Sunday.

The six-day week is introduced where a five-day week is not suitable due to the specifics of the work or the maximum load standards. Many companies work six days a week, especially the service sector - Saturday is a fairly active day for providing services. Many factory workers and other workers who work a five-day week apply for certain services on their day off - Saturday. Not only commercial, but also some government agencies work on a six-day schedule.

Some countries practice a 4-day work week. Such a proposal was also made in the State Duma, but did not find support, but only thundered in the news. In this case, the length of working days would be about 10 hours, compensating for the additional day off.

Obviously, the duration of the shift is determined by the norms of the length of the working week and the number of working days in it. If we start from the standard figure of 40 working hours per week, then the duration of the working day will be:

  • 5 days – 8 working hours per day;
  • 6 days - 7 working hours a day, Saturday - 5 working hours.

This general norms For Russian Federation based on current provisions of the law.

Working days calendar for 2015

In 2015 there is one more working hour than in 2014. With a 5-day week of 40 hours, 2015 contains:

  • working days – 247;
  • shortened pre-holiday days (by 1 hour) – 5;
  • weekends and non-working days – 118;

8 hours (working day with 5 days) * 247 - 5 (reduced hours) = 1971 hours

The number of working weeks in a year can be determined by dividing the resulting 1971 hours by the standard of 40 hours, we get 49 working weeks. There are special production calendars, in which you can see which days of the week are working. 2015 as a whole is practically no different from the previous one.

Non-standard graphics

It is necessary to take into account enterprises where work takes place in 2, 3 and 4 shifts, the duration of which is different - 10, 12 and 24 hours. The schedule is set by the employer, who is guided by the opinion of the trade union, as well as the conditions and specifics of the production process.

For example, some heavy industrial plants often operate 3 shifts, each 12 hours long, seven days a week. Then, each employee is assigned his own schedule of shifts and days off, which do not coincide with regular public holidays. However, general standards for maximum working hours must be observed, and overtime hours must be paid at an enhanced rate.

For those who work part-time, the working day is limited to 4 hours and the working week is limited to 16 hours. True, the law provides exceptions for cultural workers, doctors and teachers.

Standards for working hours are established both at the level of the Russian Federation and at local levels as part of the preparation of contracts, both collectively and individually.

Weekends and religious traditions

Working week norms differ in different countries; in some of them, days off may not be the same days that are considered such in Russia. In European countries, the USA and most Asian countries, the weekend is Saturday and Sunday. But in Muslim countries - Friday and Saturday. The working week in this case begins on Sunday and lasts until Thursday - Egypt, Syria, Iraq, UAE. In Iran, for example, the work schedule starts on Saturday and ends on Thursday.

The main day off in Israel is Saturday, while Friday is a shortened day - you can only work until lunch.

This is due to religious traditions and the need to give people a day off to perform necessary religious rituals. The Christian Sunday tradition and the Jewish "Sabbath" underlie the official holidays. However, in most developed countries this is a tradition that has been formed over many years and enshrined in law - a clear and convenient working day schedule.

Working schedules of other countries

After the collapse of the USSR, a 40-hour working week was established in almost all CIS countries. What is the situation like in other countries around the world?

The European Parliament has determined the maximum work time, including overtime, 48 hours a week. In addition, some European countries have introduced their own regulatory restrictions. For example, Finland has established both a minimum of 32 working hours per week and a maximum of 40 hours.

But the standard working week for most European countries is set at 35 working hours: Switzerland, France, Germany and Belgium. Private enterprises usually work more, but in production this norm is strictly observed.

In the United States, since the 40s of the 20th century, a working week norm of 40 hours has been introduced. This is true for government workers, while in private firms this figure is 35 hours. This reduction in working hours is caused by the economic crisis.

Interestingly, in the Netherlands there is a trend towards shorter working weeks and longer working hours. With a standard of 40 working hours per week, Dutch enterprises are increasingly introducing a 4-day working week with a 10-hour working day.

Who works the hardest?

It's no secret that the most hardworking people are in China, where people work 10 hours a day. If we take into account that China has a six-day working week, this works out to 60 working hours. A lunch break of only 20 minutes and a vacation of 10 days leaves no doubt about the country's leadership in hard work.

You need to understand that the official working week and actual data can differ greatly, in either direction. In the CIS countries, especially in private enterprises, people tend to work more than 40 hours, and overtime is not always paid.

In addition, with all the breaks and shortened days, workers in many countries are working below regulatory standards. The largest gap between official hours and actual hours worked is observed in the USA, Germany and France, where the working week actually totals no more than 33–35 hours.

In France, for example, Friday is an official working day, but many make it so short that after lunch there is no one at the workplace.

But the British, known for their hard work, usually stay late at work, so that their week stretches to 42.5 hours.

Statistics on the working week in different countries

Taking into account all of the above, we can only determine on average how many hours per week they work in the following countries:

  • USA - 40;
  • England - 42.5;
  • France - 35-39;
  • Germany, Italy – 40;
  • Japan - 40-44 (according to some sources 50);
  • Sweden - 40;
  • Netherlands – 40;
  • Belgium - 38;
  • Russia, Ukraine, Belarus (and other CIS countries) - 40;
  • China - 60.

Although in some sources you can find slightly different data. For example, Italy is named one of the countries where people work the least. It is probably impossible to completely generalize these statistics, but it is necessary to consider them from different angles: for private businesses, large enterprises, etc.

Most of these countries have a five-day work week, and the number of hours in a working day can vary.

4 days in Russia?

It turns out that not only in the Netherlands, but also in Russia a working week of 4 days could be adopted. In 2014, the State Duma discussed the possibility of introducing a 4-day working week at the suggestion of the International Labor Organization (ILO). The ILO recommendations regarding the 4-day week are based on the possibility of expanding the number of vacancies and jobs. Such a short week gives citizens the opportunity to relax more effectively and efficiently.

However, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation stated that such innovations are impossible for Russia, calling a 4-day working week a luxury. On the other hand, the plight of some citizens would force them to find a second job during these 3 days off, which would have a negative impact on their health and ability to work.

There is no better entertainment for humanity than playing with these 365 (or however many) days its planet revolves around the Sun. Then the Mayans will get tired of counting the years ahead and the current pessimists are already screaming - the end of the world! Then the Romans cannot figure out the division into months and come up with all sorts of ideas when it is more convenient to kill Caesar. And with the names of the months in Greece and Rome, real disgraces were happening. Somehow, June, July and August, named after persons, have survived to this day. And sooner or later some successful commander will appear, so the sycophants rush to rename them for months. There were Alexandrius, and Demetrius, and Pompey... But it seemed to have settled down. People are used to considering December as the twelfth month, although the name is translated from Latin as “tenth”.
And don’t feed the revolutionaries bread, let them make fun of the calendar. The Jacobins abolished the previous names of the months, introduced Germinal, Thermidor, etc. Why, new era has arrived. The era lasted 12 years. The Bolsheviks were also not long in coming with calendar reforms. First, they famously switched from Julian to Gregorian calendar. And after January 31, 1918, February 14 immediately came. But it was right. The world revolution is upon us, and we have a discrepancy with the whole world. But then something more incomprehensible happened.
With the beginning of the revolutionary movement, one of the first demands of the proletariat was a reduction in the working day. For the first time in Russia, an 11.5-hour day was legally established in 1897. The Bolsheviks introduced the long-awaited one-hour day and a 48-hour week.
But industrialization came, the first five-year plan, intensification and reforms began. In 1929, the Council of People's Commissars issued a resolution on the introduction of the “five-day week” from 1930. The year was divided into 72 five-day weeks, each of which had a day off at the end. The main trick was that the staff of each enterprise was divided into five parts. And for each unit, the working year began on different days of the first five-day period. It turned out that the enterprise or organization worked without days off at all. With such a system, the order of the days of the week lost meaning and Mondays and Tuesdays disappeared altogether. Instead, “the first day of the five-day period”, “the second day of the five-day period”. One of the goals of the reform was anti-religious. Sundays disappeared among Christians, Saturday among Jews, Friday among Muslims.
“When the methodological and pedagogical sector switched to a continuous week and, instead of pure Sunday, Khvorobyov’s days of rest became some purple fifths, he disgustedly spent his pension and settled far outside the city.” (I. Ilf, E. Petrov “Golden Calf.”)
But the confusion with the division of work collectives into parts, with the distribution of vacations, with cases of absence on sick leave turned out to be too great. If enterprises with a continuous production cycle did not have common days off, then why was this necessary at school, at the theater or at the Glavuprban? In 1931, the five-day period was replaced by a six-day period. The 6th, 12th, 18th, 24th and 30th of each month were common holidays. We were working on the 31st, and in absence on February 30th we went out on March 1st. But they still lived without Sundays and Saturdays. Only six holidays a year did not depend on the new order. The modern viewer does not understand what the title “the first day of the six-day period” means in the film “Volga-Volga,” but then it was clear to everyone.
Only on June 26, 1940, the seven-day week returned again and the days returned to their previous names. Everything falls into place.

Pavel Kuzmenko

The request to submit an amendment to the labor market committee of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) regarding a 60-hour work week came not from employers, but from work teams, said businessman Mikhail Prokhorov, who heads the committee, in an interview with the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.

In most cases, a person's work is measured by working hours. Labor legislation most often uses units of measurement such as a working day (shift) and a working week.

A further reduction in working hours was provided for by the RSFSR Law of April 19, 1991 “On increasing social guarantees for workers.” In accordance with this law, employees' working hours cannot exceed 40 hours per week.

The duration of daily work is 8 hours, 8 hours 12 minutes or 8 hours 15 minutes, and for work with hazardous working conditions - 7 hours, 7 hours 12 minutes or 7 hours 15 minutes.

In April 2010, Russian businessman Mikhail Prokhorov proposed changing labor legislation and introducing a 60-hour work week instead of a 40-hour one. In November 2010, the RUIE board of directors approved amendments to the Labor Code, which met fierce resistance from trade unions. However, later the document was to be sent for consideration to a Russian tripartite commission with the participation of employers, trade unions and the government.

The material was prepared based on information from open sources

Ecology of knowledge: The five-day work week is the result of the industrial revolution of the 18th–19th centuries. Then there was a transition from an agricultural economy to industrial production, and

The five-day work week is a result of the industrial revolution of the 18th–19th centuries. Then there was a transition from an agricultural economy to industrial production, and many factories and manufactories appeared, the work of which needed to be regulated. At first, their workers worked during daylight hours, 12 hours a day. However, with the advent of electricity, working hours increased; this resulted in protests and led to the formation of the first labor associations - for example, the National Union of Labor in the USA, which advocated shorter working hours.

Saxon Engineering Factory 1868 © wikipedia

In an agrarian society, the only traditional day off was Sunday - on this day it was customary to go to church. The industrial world also at first adhered to the established six-day system, but then Western society began to gradually move away from it under the pressure of public protests and the authors of the first scientific research, who confirmed: a ten-hour working day without a lunch break leads to exhaustion, which has a bad effect on labor results. As early as 1926, Ford Motor Company founder Henry Ford began closing his factories on Saturday and Sunday. By this point, the number of working hours per week in the United States had already been reduced from 80 to 50. Ford concluded that it was easier to divide this volume into 5 rather than 6 days, freeing up more time for leisure - and increased consumer demand.

Henry Ford © wikipedia

In Russia the picture was different. IN late XIX century, working hours here were still not regulated in any way and amounted to 14–16 hours a day. Only in 1897, under pressure from the labor movement, especially from the weavers of the Morozov manufactory in Ivanovo, the working day was for the first time legally limited to 11 and a half hours from Monday to Friday and to 10 hours on Saturday for men, as well as to 10 hours every day for women and children. However, the law did not regulate overtime, so in practice working hours remained unlimited.

Changes occurred only after October revolution 1917. Then a decree of the Council was issued people's commissars, which determined the work schedule of enterprises. It stated that working hours should not exceed 8 hours per day and 48 per week, including the time required to care for the machines and work area. Nevertheless, the working week in the USSR after this point remained six days for another 49 years.

From 1929 to 1960, the Soviet working day went through several major changes. In 1929, it was reduced to 7 hours (and the working week to 42 hours), but at the same time they began the transition to a new time calendar - in connection with the introduction of a continuous production system. Because of this, the calendar week was shortened to 5 days: four working days, 7 hours each, and the 5th day off. The country even began to publish pocket calendars, with the Gregorian week printed on one side and the time week on the other. At the same time, for the People's Commissariats and other institutions, since 1931, the schedule became special: here the calendar week was six days, and within its framework the 6th, 12th, 18th, 24th and 30th of each month, as well as 1 March were not working.

Five-day calendar © wikipedia

The Gregorian calendar has returned to Soviet Union only in 1940. The week again became seven days: 6 working days, one (Sunday) - a day off. The working hours increased again to 48 hours. Great Patriotic War added to this time mandatory overtime work from 1 to 3 hours a day, and vacations were canceled. Since 1945, wartime measures ceased to apply, but only by 1960 the working week returned to its previous volumes: 7 hours a day, 42 hours. Only in 1966, at the XXIII Congress of the CPSU, a decision was made to switch to a five-day workday with an eight-hour working day and two days off: Saturday and Sunday. IN educational institutions the six-day period was preserved.

1968 Rudkovich A. Don’t waste your working minutes! © wikipedia

“The idea of ​​introducing a 40-hour work week in the world took shape around 1956 and was implemented in most European countries in the early 60s,” says Nikolai Bai, professor of the department civil law Law Institute of RUDN University. - Initially, this idea was proposed by the International Labor Organization, after which leading and developing economies began to apply it in practice. IN different countries However, the amount of working time still remains different: for example, in France the week is 36 hours. main reason- the fact that the degree of economic development differs from country to country. In a developed economy, it makes no sense to force people in, and a shorter work week is possible so that people can devote more time to themselves, their health and family. By the way, in the recent past in Russia, Mikhail Prokhorov proposed introducing a 60-hour work week in Russia. In response to this, the government asked the question: “Do you want another revolution to take place in our country?”