If you like the idea of working in a car plant, assembling new supercars for Lamborghini in the beautiful Emilia-Romagna region of Italy seems infinitely more appealing than bolting bits onto a Lada in Russia. And now one of the most wanted jobs in its sector just got a whole lot more desirable with the news that workers at the supercar factory in Sant’Agata are switching to a four-day week.
Technically, Lamborghini workers on a two-shift schedule will alternate between four- and five-day work weeks, but the upshot is they’ll work 22 fewer days each year. Their colleagues on a three-shift schedule get an even better deal, clawing 31 days back to do with as they wish because their new rota, which includes night work, alternates between a five-day week and two four-day weeks, Reuters reports.
And far from losing out financially in return for this improved work-life balance, Lambo’s employees will earn more going forward because the new arrangement provides for a 50 percent increase in bonuses, plus a special one-off bonus of €1,000 ($1,080) they’ll receive this December. The new Lamborghini deal resulted from negotiations between the automaker and the FIOM and FIM-CISL unions, who described the agreement as “historical” and said it’s the first time that workers in Europe’s automotive industry have been granted a reduction in working hours while also gaining wages, instead of losing them.
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“Work less and work better, this is the principle that guided this negotiation, and which is part of a comprehensive reasoning,” said FIOM and FIM-CISL in a statement as news of the deal broke, and the two unions are far from alone in that belief. Support for shorter working weeks has grown in recent years and studies carried out in other European countries have shown that workers given more free time were more productive during their working hours, tended to stay in jobs for longer, and were less likely to call in sick.
And when it comes down to it, even theoretically desirable jobs like building Lamborghinis are still just jobs. Life is short, but evening out the badly skewed ratio most of us have between working and playing can help make it feel a little longer.
Source: Reuters