The Azorean government has announced that it plans to begin testing the four-day workweek in the public sector in 2025, as they claim this move will increase productivity through a sense of responsibility. Duarte Freitas, the secretary of Finance, Planning and Public Administration, has emphasised while speaking to journalists in Ponta Delgada that the pilot experiences mean that the four-day workweek "could be more or less extended" to the entire public service.

As stated by Duarte Freitas, "We intend to have a design by the end of the year so that, next year, we can start with pilot projects to implement the four-day week, which will not, in the initial phase at least, be generalized to the entire public service". As he asserted, "a motivated and well-trained public or private sector employee, with continuous training, will be more productive," taking into account that it is a sense of duty.


The four-day workweek is already being considered by businesses in the Azores, according to the secretary, who also noted that this might lead to "improving productivity" in the private sector. "The four-day week does not mean that it is fixed. There are businesspeople and services that can have a four-day week and the fifth day being teleworking. There are businesspeople who can have three days of physical presence and two days of teleworking ", Duarte Freitas revealed.

In the Regional Government program (PSD/CDS-PP/PPM), approved in March by the Azorean parliament, the Azorean executive indicates that it wants to create a "pilot project for the four-day week/telework (also extendable to the private sector), always in common agreement with the worker and the employer, to better reconcile their professional life with their personal and family life”. Although the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Azores (CCIA) acknowledge the four-day working week could be applicable in the public sector, it reinforces that to apply the same measures in the private sector will be a harder challenge.


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