In Tsarist Russia
The first law regulating working hours was adopted in the Russian Empire on June 14 (June 2 - old style) 1897. The document, signed by Emperor Nicholas II after a series of workers’ strikes, limited the working day in “factory industry establishments” to 11.5 hours, at night or before holidays to 10 hours. The law introduced for the first time 14 mandatory holidays (13 according to the Orthodox calendar and the New Year), and also established a six-day working week. It was legislated that for Orthodox Christians all Sundays are days off; for non-Christian workers it was allowed to replace them with other days of the week.
Already at the beginning of the 20th century, most enterprises had a nine- or ten-hour working day. The demand for a transition to an eight-hour working day was one of the key ones in the Russian labor movement.
“Comrade Stalin sets a great task - to achieve a 5-hour working day. If we achieve this, it will be a great revolution. I started work at nine - at 2 o'clock it was already over, without a break. I had lunch and had free time. We can bypass capitalism on this alone, they can’t do that, give them profits, and give them workers - but how can Russians live well in 5 hours? No, give us socialism and Soviet Power too, we also want to live like people. This will be the peaceful offensive of communism.” “Communism is possible if the number of communists in life grows, not for fear, not for bonuses, but for conscience - those who are interested in working and living, who know how to work and relax, but not like a dance, but with their souls, to develop." “Sport is a must for everyone; If the working day is 5 hours, there will be enough for everything; you will have to study all your life. 10 years have passed - sit down at your desk again for a couple of months, remember history, geography. And if you know, pass the exam and walk for two months. We don’t need ignoramuses, we need communists without exception, and what kind of communist are you if you don’t know anything and are clutching your heart at the age of forty? We didn’t have time, but you have it, come on, develop, dear, the Soviet Power gave you, use it and strengthen it yourself.” “And so - all over the world” From the notes of L. P. Beria
Documentary film: “Lavrentiy Beria. Return from oblivion. When the author of the film studied the life of L.P. Beria and understood the biography of a key figure in the history of the Soviet State and even the WORLD(!), he felt JUST TERRIBLE(!) at the blatant injustice towards this man. The future director set himself the task: at any cost, to MAKE(!) a documentary film about the biography and life of Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria. “Running in circles” in an attempt to find sponsors for the project did not lead to anything... Time passed and the idea “sank in bureaucracy.” Resistance to the project and external “not giving a damn” intensified... Then Yuri P. Rogozin decided to sell his own apartment and with this money implement the project. The apartment was sold, the documentary film, contrary to the will of the bureaucrats, anti-propaganda and the “will of the moneybags”, came true!!! From the first frames, the author declares that he is not going to prove or disprove anything to anyone, his task is to talk about the very difficult life of Lavrentiy Beria, based only on facts and the memories of contemporaries of the all-powerful People's Commissar of the NKVD. Tell only the truth.
Commentary on the film:
“I’m sitting, stunned, after watching it, with burning ears and a rising temperature... Today’s pain in connection with the tragedy of Ukraine suddenly faded into the background after watching this film...”
After the October Revolution
On November 11 (October 29, old style), 1917, by decree of the Council of People's Commissars (SNK), an eight-hour working day was established in Russia and a 48-hour work week with one day off was introduced. Reduced working hours were provided for in industries that were particularly harmful to health. On December 9, 1918, the Labor Code of the RSFSR was adopted, which consolidated these provisions.
From January 2, 1929 to October 1, 1933, in accordance with the resolution of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars, a gradual transition to a seven-hour working day was carried out. The working week was 42 hours. On August 26, 1929, the resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR “On the transition to continuous production in enterprises and institutions of the USSR” introduced a five-day work week with one day off (four working days in a row, the fifth is a day off).
In November 1931, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution in which it allowed the People's Commissariats and other institutions to return to a six-day working week. On June 27, 1940, the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR came into force on the transition to an eight-hour working day with a six-day working week (Sunday is a day off). The working week began to be 48 hours.
After the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, on June 26, 1941, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR signed a decree “On the working hours of workers and employees in wartime,” according to which mandatory overtime work was introduced from one to three hours a day. Vacations were cancelled. These wartime measures were canceled by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on June 30, 1945.
Why didn’t the four-day plan take root?
Alexey Makurin, AiF: — What were the standards for work and rest in the early Soviet years?
Alexander Lomkin : — The Bolsheviks were the first in the world to establish an 8-hour working day in Russia already on the fourth day after the October Revolution. In the 1920s the working week in industry and government agencies was 48 hours. Weekends traditionally fell on Sunday, and in different months, excluding holidays, there were four or five of them.
“Mondays – take it and cancel it.” Is the Russian Federation ready for a 4-day working week Read more
But in 1929, at the start of industrialization, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution on the transition to continuous production. Therefore, general rest on Sundays was canceled and a sliding schedule was introduced, according to which citizens worked for four days and rested on the fifth. At the same time, the length of the working day was reduced to 7 hours, and all workers were divided into five groups, each of which had its own day of rest.
As a result, the number of days off during the month increased to six. However, this innovation produced negative results. The unusual and inconvenient work schedule gave rise to mass absenteeism among workers (mostly former peasants), injuries and staff turnover. Coupled with low qualifications of workers, this led to an increase in defects in production and a decrease in labor productivity by 28%. Therefore, in November 1931, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR allowed the People's Commissariats to use a six-day “continuous” period. Remember, in the movie “Volga-Volga” time is measured in six days?
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- It always surprised me. But what is even more surprising is that the working day was shortened during the first five-year plans, when it was necessary to build and produce more.
— In the USSR at that time there was an explosive growth in the number of the working class. According to statistics, in 1928 there were 4.6 million workers in the country, at the beginning of 1932 - already more than 10 million. But, despite this, there was a shortage of experienced personnel, and there were a huge number of unfilled vacancies at the factories. In addition, there was a lack of machinery and equipment needed to increase production. Therefore, experiments were conducted on organizing work in several shifts in order to rationally use technology.
At the same time, the working day varied, depending on the level of qualifications and specialty. For example, they worked 6 hours a day in the 1930s. engineers. And these innovations also had an ideological background - Marx’s thesis that the wealth of a society is determined by the amount of free time of its citizens. The Soviet government demonstrated to the world that it was successfully solving this problem and paid a lot of attention to organizing people's leisure time after work.
What Stalin prescribed. Will the methods of the Soviet five-year plans help the economy? More details
The approach of war prevented the continuation of this line. In 1940, “at the request of the workers,” on whose behalf the trade unions spoke, an 8-hour working day was reintroduced in the USSR. At enterprises included in the industrial mobilization plan, weekends and vacations were simultaneously canceled (with compensation in the amount of a month's salary). Then, with the outbreak of the war, this happened everywhere. At the state level, weekends returned only in 1945. At the same time, a recalculation was made and unused vacations were compensated to people with money.
During the war, compulsory overtime was also allowed up to three hours a day. At the same time, additional work was paid at an increased rate.
Calendar revolution. How the Bolsheviks introduced the Gregorian calendar Read more
Post-war
At the end of the post-war recovery period in 1956-1960, the working day in the USSR was gradually (by sector of the national economy) again reduced to seven hours with a six-day working week (Sunday is a day off), and the working week to 42 hours.
On March 7, 1967, the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Central Council of Trade Unions adopted a resolution “On the transfer of workers and employees of enterprises, institutions and organizations to a five-day working week with two days off.” On March 14, 1967, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, a five-day work week with two days off (Saturday and Sunday) was introduced in the USSR. The working day was eight hours. In general education schools, higher and secondary specialized educational institutions, a six-day working week has been introduced, with a seven-hour working day. The working week did not exceed 42 hours.
On December 9, 1971, the Supreme Council of the RSFSR adopted a new Labor Code (LC) of the RSFSR, according to which the working hours of workers and employees could not exceed 41 hours. The USSR Constitution, adopted on October 7, 1977, enshrined this norm (Article 41).
History of changes in the working week in Russia. Reference
In 1897, under the pressure of the labor movement, especially the weavers of the Morozov manufactory (Ivanovo), in Russia for the first time the working day was legally limited to 11.5 hours (on Saturday 10 hours), and for women and children - 10 hours with six working days in Week. Vacation was not provided. Also, the law did not limit overtime work in any way, which negated the limitation of the working day.
After the October Revolution, on November 11 (October 29, old style), 1917, a decree of the Council of People's Commissars “On the eight-hour working day” was issued. It stated that working hours, determined by the internal regulations of enterprises, should not exceed 8 working hours a day and 48 hours a week, including the time spent on cleaning machines and putting the work area in order.
The state strictly controlled compliance with this standard of working hours. In 1928-1933. a transition to a 7-hour working day was carried out. In the early 1930s. a five-day work cycle was introduced (a five-day working week with a sixth day off).
In 1940, in connection with the outbreak of the Second World War of 1939-1945. and the tense international situation, a decree was issued by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR “On the transition to an eight-hour working day, to a seven-day working week” (six working hours and one day off). We worked 48 hours a week.
At the end of the post-war recovery period in 1956-1960. The working day in the USSR was again reduced to 7 hours (in a number of industries and industries - to 6 hours) with a six-day working week, and then a transition was made to a five-day working week with two days off. The working week was 42 hours.
As economic and other necessary prerequisites were created in the USSR, a transition was made to a shorter working week. In 1977, the Constitution of the USSR established a 41-hour 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.” According to this law, employees' working hours cannot exceed 40 hours per week.
This norm was included in Art. Chapter 42 IV Labor Code of the Russian Federation.
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
5-hour workday: yes, it's real!
Ecology of life. Business: Today the Internet and other technologies have increased productivity even further, but as Aarstol says, wages have not increased and working hours have remained the same.
The editor of Inc. talks about the principles of one unusual but effective company. Lee Buchanan.
Stefan Aarstol's Tower Paddle Boards nearly doubled its revenue per employee in May this year. But wages have not been reduced. Aarsol achieved this by highlighting an important fact: for startups, time is a more manageable resource than money. Therefore, instead of increasing wages, he reduced the working day to five hours.
Aarstol is the same guy who was taken aback during his business pitch on the reality show Shark Tank, but still received $150,000 from investor Mark Cuban. Today he leads a team of nine people and his company sells surfboards online. “Doing things differently is part of our brand,” says Aarstol. He persuaded his employees to quit their other jobs and come to work at Tower Paddle Boards.
In 1914, Henry Ford reduced the workweek of car assemblers to 40 hours, using innovative assembly lines that made people more productive. Today, the Internet and other technologies have increased productivity even further, but as Aarstol says, wages have not increased and working hours have remained the same.
“People today can become much more productive, but they are also capable of enormous waste of time,” he says. Given all these distractions, most people average no more than two to three hours a day doing worthwhile activities, he says. (Research by Duke University professor Dan Ariely confirms this: People are much more productive in the first few hours of the day, but their productivity declines rapidly after noon.)
Here are some of the rules that make Aarstol and his team successful in working in a 5-hour workday.
Employees organize their own 5-hour day
Official business hours at Tower are 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Aarstol estimates that people stick to this schedule 70% of the time, although they may work longer when things get stressful.
Working hours may vary depending on the role. “A person who works in customer service—one of the most stressful jobs in a company—may finish work at 1 p.m. sharp and quite regularly,” Aarstol says. “But our director, due to the nature of his work and love for his work, sometimes sleeps in the office.”
The company is building a team consisting of ambitious and disciplined people
The workload hasn't changed, so the new policy is essentially a challenge to work smarter. “The main thing is to learn and force yourself to be more productive, to set very clear limits for yourself,” says Aarstol. “Nothing helps you focus like a deadline.”
Employees want to leave with everyone else at 1 pm, so they check their email less often and don’t waste time on social networks and meaningless chatter. “We're not trying to make everything efficient,” says director of digital strategy Allison Dandovich, “we're just trying to eliminate ineffective things, and that makes you more efficient.”
Everyone learns to set deadlines and follow through.
When Aarstol was preparing his team for the new regime, he asked employees to read Tim Ferriss' book How to Work 4 Hours a Week. He professes the 80:20 rule (20% of effort produces 80% of results) and encourages workers to analyze everything they do to understand what exactly brings value and where they begin to waste time.
Tower also plans to develop specific programs that teach people to work productively under severe restrictions.
Everyone gets a share of the profits
When Tower limited working hours, a rule was introduced: 5% of profits goes to employees. All this together almost doubled employee income.
For example, an employee earning $40,000 per year who worked 2,000 hours (50 40-hour weeks) earned $20 per hour. But the number of hours worked dropped to 1,250, and with the addition of $8,000 in profit payments, the man now earns $38 an hour. At the same time, the same vacation system remains the same: take as much as you want, just don’t abuse it.
The freed up hours are spent on becoming healthier.
“It worked great,” says Aarstol. - Everyone is terribly glad that they can leave work at one o'clock in the afternoon - especially those who have children. It really changes their lives.” So far, no one has used the freed up hours to earn extra money. “I told the guys that if they wanted to earn more, they could, for example, give people Uber rides in their free time. But they already like the way they live.”
Dandovich, for example, usually spends the day having lunch with friends, playing softball or pursuing his hobby of interior design. “This is a great time to get creative,” she says. “And I became much happier.”
The unique approach to work also influenced the company’s image
Aarstol was a little worried that he would lose customers when they saw that the company was cutting hours. But Tower gets just as many calls as before—just during shorter business hours. And Aarstol says it's good for the brand. “We want customers to think, 'Wow, that sounds cool. Looks like these guys are on to something. I like them, I like what this company does. I will buy something from them."
The boss inspires others by example
Aarstol himself works more than 25 hours a week, but still tries to be a model of moderation. If business is going well, he might take a three-week trip to Africa, Colombia or Southeast Asia, as he has done for the past four years.
“And I have absolutely no qualms about leaving work at one o’clock in the afternoon for weeks at a time,” he says. “I also introduced this rule because I wanted everyone in the company to be able to live in the same rhythm that I came up with for myself.” published
PS And remember, just by changing your consciousness, we are changing the world together! © econet
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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.
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.
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Working youth of the 50s. Photographer Maxim Yakovchuk
On May 25, 1956, a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was issued, establishing a six-hour working day for workers and employees under 18 years of age. Thus, after difficult wartime, a return to the order of distant 1918 was proclaimed, when the first Labor Code was adopted in the Soviet country. There, in the section “On Working Time,” it was stated that “the duration of normal working time for each worker cannot exceed 6 hours if the person has not reached the age of 18.”
Adults were required to work no more than 8 hours on a day shift or 7 on a night shift.
Hour after hour
The history of labor law is a history of struggle. All relief was obtained through protests and strikes. In this respect, our country is no different from others; Historically, the process of reducing the working day proceeds at an average pace: we are neither leaders nor lagging behind.
Until the end of the 19th century, the word “workday” in our country was much more related to “slavery” than to “work.” It was not limited by law and could last 14-16 hours. In 1897, under the pressure of the unrest of the proletariat - the weavers of the Morozov manufactory in Ivanovo made special efforts - the working day was for the first time legally limited to 11.5 hours, and on Saturday it was allowed to stop at ten. There was only one day off in a seven-day week, and there were no vacations at all. Overtime work was not limited in any way, which reduced any other time restrictions to nothing.
By 1904, under the influence of ongoing protests, the authorities were already forced to lower the bar to 10.5 working hours, and by 1908 at some enterprises in the Moscow province - to 9.5 hours. Meanwhile, in Australia, back in 1848, an 8-hour working day was legislated. The American Miners' Union achieved a similar resolution in 1898. The locomotive of consumer and social and legal progress in the United States, switched to an eight-hour day in 1914. However, then Russia took a decisive step forward.
May Day in November
In our country, the most important document that changed the lives of millions of working citizens was adopted a few days after the revolution - on November 11, 1917. It is this date that Russian workers should celebrate instead of May Day: on this day, the Council of People's Commissars adopted a decree on an 8-hour working day. By this time, however, at many enterprises - in particular in St. Petersburg - the eight-hour shift had already been introduced on an in-person basis. The decree simply legitimized the victory of the proletariat, making it a legislative norm.
It is curious that France prescribed the same norm at the legal level only in 1936, through the efforts of the left-wing Popular Front government; The United States in 1937, as part of then-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal, and Japan in 1947. Even in Germany, a “shortened” working day was established a year later than in the USSR - after the November revolution of 1918.
The state strictly controlled these achievements. The author of “Kolyma Tales” Varlam Shalamov worked in a private tannery in the Moscow region in the 20s, and later recalled: “There was no piecework then. We worked strictly for eight hours. 45 rubles of a tanner’s salary gave me the opportunity to send money home, and buy clothes, and pay for the table.”
In 1928-1933, the country reached a seven-hour working day. The work week was limited to 42 hours. In the early thirties, the week became five days: there were two days off instead of one.
Pre-war and wartime, of course, dictated its own standards: in 1940, for example, the weekly volume of working time again increased to 48 hours... And after June 22, 1941, the standards were actually abolished altogether: managers were allowed to introduce up to three overtime hours per day. Thus, by law, the working day could be extended to 11 hours; in reality, people in military production could work even longer.
It never even occurred to anyone to think about relaxations then - the phrase “It’s harder at the front” was the motto of the wartime home front.
11 years to breathe in and out
11 years have passed since the Victory. The country has done a colossal job of restoring the housing stock, social infrastructure, and national economy from ruins. And when wartime laws lost all meaning, the authorities finally started thinking about improving working conditions.
1956 was literally a breakthrough year in the field of labor law. By order of the Supreme Council, it was forbidden to hire schoolchildren under 16 years of age; Only in certain, exceptional cases, with the permission of their parents, could a 15-year-old Komsomol member apply for a job. A resolution was adopted to shorten the working day before weekends and holidays - now on Fridays citizens could go home an hour, or even two, earlier. Finally, a decree was issued “On the abolition of judicial liability of workers and employees for unauthorized leaving the enterprise and absenteeism without a good reason.”
The working day was again reduced to 7 hours with a “six-day” workday, and in the early 60s the “five-day” workday with two days off also returned. There are 42 hours left in the work week.
In 1977, the Soviet “Brezhnev” Constitution enshrined the norm of a 41-hour working week. And a few months before the death of the USSR, in April 1991, a 40-hour weekly working time limit was introduced. Registered in the Soviet Labor Code, it was inherited by the Russian Federation.
Three cherished eights
For a long time, the symbol of the trade union movement was three eights. It was invented in 1810 by the English utopian socialist Robert Owen, who presented the formula for an ideal working day: “8 hours for work, 8 for rest and 8 for sleep.”
Since then, a lot has changed, and definitely for the better: formally, Owen’s utopia has become a reality, and in some places, for example, in France, even yesterday. Nevertheless, the struggle of citizens for labor rights can hardly be considered completed . New times dictate their own rules, and in modern Russia there are increasingly reports that employers are forcing their employees to overwork.
According to data from the fall of 2015, during the crisis, 60% of employees of Russian firms and enterprises took on additional responsibilities. 30% of officially employed men and 23% of women stay at work longer than expected every day, and another 19% of female employees and 25% of employees sacrifice personal time several times a week. Moreover, most “labor feats” are accomplished for a salary of 45 thousand rubles or less.
As we see, in fact, today Owen’s “three eights” are not yet a reality for many, but a dream (let’s say, Owen had no idea that he could drive two hours one way to work). Along with this, one cannot help but admit that the 21st century is a much more pleasant and protected time for workers than the twentieth, and even more so the nineteenth. And systematic, principled defense of one’s rights time after time leads to success. At least that's what the history of labor relations teaches us. So, if something happens, we can repeat it.
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.
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.
