F I V E - D A Y WEEK ( E X P E R I M E N T A N D P R O B L E M S )

I . O e n k e n UDC 888.38:669.1

The direct ives of the 23rd Congress of the Communis t Party of the Soviet Union ca l l for the systematic con-

version of workers and employees of enterprises, institutions, and organizations to a f ive-day work week (five days of work and two days off) while retaining the presently established to ta l weekly working t ime, which will ease the working conditions of workers, broaden the possibili t ies of a further increase of their qualif icat ions and cultural level, and also will promote an increase in the eff iciency of u t i l iz ing production funds. This conversion has already been accomplished at many me ta l lu rg i ca l enterprises of the country. Below we have published the a r t i c le by I. S.

Oenken, Chie f of the depar tment of labor organizat ion of the Kuz 'man Meta l lurg ica l Plant at Novosibirsk. The author tells about the problems and diff icul t ies which arose upon changing the reg ime of work and rest and how the Plant co l lec t ive overcame them.

The editor of the journal Metal lurg invites economists, planners, and execut ive personnel of enterprises to speak out with respect to this important problem.

We are discussing a great deaI about the losses of work t ime, but we are doing almost nothing to decrease the loss of the workers' free t ime, and this has a direct bearing on the productivity of labor. The less t ime a worker or engineer loses on the road from the p lace of work, the more quickly- he is served in a restaurant or store, the more

t ime he will devote to rest and sports. And having rested well, a man works well.

The conversion of a plant to a f ive-day work week pr imari ly reduces the loss of free t ime. According to our

calculat ions, about two hours are spent on coming to an leaving the plant, on walking to and from the working place, dressing in work clothes, and washing in the shower after work. To this we must add 20 rain for receiving and returning equipment, the hour break for lunch, the " take five" t ime, and the t ime of production conferences. In its entirety we find that the loss of free t ime amounts to more than 3 h on the average for each appearance at work, and in some cases even more. On convert ing to a f ive-day week the free t ime of each worker increased by 18-20 h per month.

With a decrease in the number of working days the t ime which the workers spent in departments with high temperatures and gas- and dus t - laden air is shortened, which in turn leads to a decrease in the morbidity rate. Thus, the advantages of the f ive-day week with two days off are obvious.

Questioning of the workers of our Plant during the period preceding conversion to the new schedule enabled

us not only to learn how each worker felt about the new working conditions but also to e l ic i t beforehand al l obstacles which could arise with a f ive-day week.

In pract ice two work schedules are used in the f ive-day week.

The first cal ls for a work week of 40 h with an 8-h work day. To compensate for the hour not worked, once every eight ca lendar weeks there is a 48-h work week. With this schedule Saturday and Sunday are the days off.

The second schedule provides for a work shift during the entire week of 8 h 12 rain or 4 days of 8 h t5 rain each, and on Friday 8 h. In this case 41 h are worked during the week and there is no need for an addi t ional shift.

In order to select one or the other work schedule, we e l ic i ted and analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of each variant . The variant with the periodic make -up of working t ime in comparison with the variant without the make-up has the following advantages:

a ) the duration of work t ime is 8 h, i. e., does not exceed the operating t ime of the main me ta l lu rg ica l equipm ent;

b )ca lcu la r ion of working t ime is s implif ied;

Chief of the depar tment of labor organization, Kuz 'min Meta l lurg ica l Plant, Novosibirsk. Translated from Metallurg, No. 1, pp. 88-87, lanuary, 1967.

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c ) the third shift ends early.

However, this schedule has its disadvantages:

a ) t h e l eve l of monthly production and wages f luctuate (they are higher in the month when t ime is made up);

b ) the rhythm of the process and the constancy of the work and rest reg imen are disturbed;

c) as prac t ice of other enterprises has shown, on m a k e - u p Saturdays the production of labor is somewhat lower

than usual since the workers fal l out of the habi t of a s ix-day week.

The adminis t ra t ion and the plant t rade union commi t t ee of our Plant approved the first variant of the schedule for a l l workers converted to the f ive-day work week. We consider a working day exceeding 8 h to be a quite sub- s tant ia l shortcoming. This not only causes a shortening of dinner breaks (and in essence la tent losses of work t ime) but also leads to a la ter ending of the third shift, which causes inconveniences for workers.

Of course, we could have introduced either one or the other variant in the shops and departments depending on

whether the workers were working one or two shifts, as some proposed, but we did not choose this way since i t would cause confusion in the schedules a t the enterprise,

We are in comple te agreement with the Kuznetsk metal lurgists and workers of the Krasnyi Oktyabr' Plant, who decided to work 40 h a week. The weekly shortage of one working hour is compensated by an addi t ional working day every eighth week.

We had some diff icul t ies in determining the t ime to start work. Here opinions were divided. About 30% pro- posed to begin work at 7:30 AM and more than half at 8 AM. We agreed with the major i ty . Frankly speaking, i t is better to begin the working day early so that i t ends early, But here diff icult ies arise which to date have sti l l not been overcome in many cities, including in Novosibirsk. Children 's establishments, schools, and pr imari ly trans- portation do not permit starting work earl ier . Most opponents of changing the start of work to an earl ier t ime stated

that i t would be impossible to take their child to the kindergarten or school and get back to the Plant before the start of work, especia l ly i f they l ived far away. We are thinking about taking up the problem of changing the start of work to an ear l ie r hour again when the problem of converting the entire ci ty of Novosibi~sk to a f ive-day work week is solved.

It would seem that the duration of the break for eat ing would be a s imple question, but i t caused no few

arguments. The Plant trade union commi t t ee decided: the dinner break for workers working one shift woutd be

45 min and those working two shifts at least 80 rain. And this is correct. The dinner break is needed not only for

eating. Now that the working day has been lengthened one hour we must think seriously about rest t ime. Here we must again return to losses of free t ime. The dinner break is one hour. Let us see how i t is used at some enterprises. From 20 to 80 min is spent in the cashier 's and serving l ine and only 10 rain for eating,

Can these losses be reduced ? Uncondit ionally, if, on one hand, the administrat ion of the plant wil l set up a strict schedule of visi t ing the dining room by services, departments, and sections, and, on the other hand, the dining- room workers improve their service.

Considerable work has been done in this direction, After determining the capac i ty and number of persons at tending each dining room, eat ing schedules were worked and approved. Now each worker knows his t ime for dinner and observes it. The duty has been organized in the dining room. The eff ic ient operat ion of the dining rooms and the strict schedule of a t tending them have made i t possible to reduce iota1 t ime spent direct ly for

dinner to 20-25 rain.

And there is st i l l another important p r o b l e m - t h e organization of the work of the maintenance personnel with

the new schedule. Here several problems arose.

As is known, most me ta l lu rg i ca l units operate on a continuous shift schedule. At our Plant the start of the first shift is a t midnight , the second at 8 AM, and the third at 4 PM. What schedule should be set up in the cent ra l ized repair depar tment where they work in one and two shifts ? If work begins at 8 AM then i t must end at 8 PM. The workers of the technologica l bridgades change at 4 PM. Naturally, at this t ime i t is impossible to make repairs; on the other hand, prolonging of repair by 1 h creates diff icult ies in getting the rollers, picklers, and cutters to

par t ic ipa te in repair since they work only until 4 PM,

Furthermore, there is st i l l another complex problem: can the repair men perform the same volume of work during five days a week which they did previously in six days ? The department of the organizat ion of labor

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together with the services of the ch ie f mechan ic and chief e lec t r i c ian studied the exper ience of a l l ied plants and performed the necessary calculat ions for preventive main tenance schedules. The possibil i ty of reducing the calendar

t ime of repair from six to five days by increasing the shift 1 h was established,

A schedule was set up for the ma in tenance personnel of the main shops and for depar tments of the cent ra l ized

repair of me ta l lu rg i ca l equipment which ca l led for the start of work at 7:30 AM until 4 PM for the first shift; the second shift starts a t 4 PM and ends a t 12:30 AM. A dinner break of ha l f an hour was established only for this category of workers. The stop of work of the repair men a ha l f an hour before the start of the second shift permits

readying the tools beforehand, to obtain instructions, and to arrange the workers at 8 AM sharp to begin repairs.

We discussed the exper ience of organizing the work of repair brigades of the Magnitogorsk Meta l lurg ica l Com- bine, which amounts to the following. With the repair brigades working on shifts an "overlapping" of shifts is per- mi t ted , i, e., one shift begins to work before the preceding shift has finished. With this variant a double number of workers is working for some t ime in the depar tment . This schedule permits the third shift to finish work not at 12:30 AM but appreciably earl ier . This is rea l ly advantageous, and at first we agreed with this variant . But, prac t ice has shown that the workers of the third shift who begin repair before the second shift has finished simply lose t ime.

This variant of the scheduIe has not been abolished.

After a l l the basic problems rela ted with the conversion of the enterprise to the new work schedule were solved,

the depar tment of organizat ion of labor developed, and the plant commi t t ee approved, various shift schedules in relat ion to the organizat ion of production and labor. A work schedule is given below for a f ive -day week with two

days off:

Date of month

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Tota l hours in cyc le

Day shift

X X X X X OFF OFF 40

Since there is one hour of work lacking each week, every fifth Saturday is a normal e ight-hour work day (once every two months), The count is made from the first week of work by the new schedule.

Al l workers of the me ta l lu rg ica l and of the auxil iary shops, including the central repair brigades, have been converted to a two-shift, two-br igade schedule which is given below:

Date of month

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 l0 11 12 13 14

First br igade

2 2 2 2 2 OFF OFF3 3 3 3 3 OFF OFF

Second br igade 3 3 3 3 3 OFF OFF 2 2 2 2 2 OFF OFF

Comment , The second shift (day) begins at 7:30 AM and ends at 4 PM; the third shift (evening) begins a t 4 PM and ends at 12:30 AM. The dinner break is 30 rain.

The breaks in changing shifts are: from the second shift to the third 72 h, from the third to the second 55 h. Since there is one work hour lacking every week, every eighth Saturday is a normal e ight-hour work day (once every two months). The average monthly ba lance of work t ime (in terms of a year) is normal with respect to this schedule, i. e., 174.6 h per month.

In a number of shops the following two-shift, two-br igade work schedule with movable free days has been introduced in order to cut down work t ime on the repair of the equipment (pr imari ly machine- tools ) :

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Date of month

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Hours in cycle

First brigade 2 2 2 2 2 2 .* * * 3 3 3 * * 80

Second brigade

�9 ' 3 3 3 3 * ~ 2 2 2 2 2 2 ~ 80

Comment . The second shift (day) starts at 7:30 AM and ends at

4 PM; the third shift (evening) begins at 4 PM and ends at 12:30 AM.

The dinner break is 30 min.

The breaks in changing of shifts by this schedule are: from the second shift to the third 72 h, from the third to

the second 55 h. After the second shift the off-days come after six work days on Sundays and Mondays. After the

third shift the off-days come after four days of work on Saturdays and Sundays. Since there is a lack of one working hour every week, each eighth Saturday or Monday is a normal eight-hour work day (once every two months).

The schedules for working three shifts are:

Date of month

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Hoursin

First brigade cycle

1 3 3 3 3 3 . , 2 2 2 2 2 * * 87

Second brigade

2 2 2 , , 1 3 3 3 3 3 . �9 2 2 87

Third brigade 3 * * 2 2 2 2 2* * 1 3 3 3 3 87

Comment. The first shift (night) begins at 12:30 AM and ends at 7:30 AM;

the second shift (day) begins at 7:30 AM and ends at 4 PM. The d inne r

break is 30 min. The third shift (evening)begins at 4 PM and ends at 12:30

AM. The breaks in shift changes by this schedule are: from the first shift

m the third 32.5 h, from the third to the second 55.0 h, from the second to the first 56.5 h. The cycle of the schedule is 15 days, 87 working hours.

During seven cycles (15 weeks) there are 609 work hours, whereas according to the normal schedule of 15

weeks of 41 h per week there are 615 h. The shortage of six hours during the seven cycles is compensated by working

seven hours on night shifts. The average monthly balance of work t ime is 173.5 h. This schedule (or as it is called

the "health schedule" ) was borrowed from the Zaporozhstal' Plant. Its ma in advantage is that during the course of

15 days (a complete cycle) each of the three brigades works the night shift only once. The schedule is intended to

shorten the night shifts since they are the most fatiguing and inefficient, especially in individual work on lathes,

sorting, packing metals, etc. Over a period of seven days each brigade (shift) has two rest days: two shifts work

six days and three shifts work one day. The night shift (once every half month) works 7 h without the regulated break,

the second and third shifts have a 30-min dinner break.

But this schedule has a defect, which was pointed out by the workers, namely sliding off days.

There is still another schedule we must mention. We have used it only in one section, in nai l production.

The most essential fault of this schedule is the duration of the regulated break, which is 20 rain. But in order not to shut down the equipment for a dinner break, we decided to establish a routine so each worker can eat. When a worker is absent the quota of the automatic nai l-producing machines is temporarily increased at the expense of the remaining workers. The advantage of this schedule is that off days coincide with the All-Union rest-days.

Date ofmonth 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Hours in cycle 1 1 1 1 1 �9 �9 3 3 3 3 3 * * 2 2 2 2 2 2 First brigade 2 2 2 2 2 2 ~ 1 1 1 1 1 * �9 3 3 3 3 3 * �9 Second brigade 3 3 3 3 3 * * 2 2 2 2 2 2 * 1 1 1 1 1 �9 �9

*OFF.

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Comment . The first shift (night) begins at midnight and ends at 8 AM; the second shift (day) begins

at 8 AM and ends at 4 PM; the third shift (evening) begins at 4 PM and ends at midnight . The breaks

for eat ing in a shift are 20 rain. The breaks when changing shifts are: from the first to the third 80 h,

from the third to the second 86 h, from the second to the first 82 h,

Essentially this schedule is the usual three-shift . On Saturday two brigades rest and one works, On Sunday al l three brigades rest. tn the second shift they each work six days.

Some consider that performance decreases as a result of increasing work t ime by 1 h. Observations which the workers of the depar tment of ' the Scient i f ic Organizat ion of Labor have made, showed that the f ive-day week schedule with two days off in a row creates a greater possibility, than with a s ix-day week, for comple t e and stable recovery of performance by the start of the following week.

The f ive-day work week with two days off has opened more possibili t ies for the fruitful rest of workers, and has become the boon companion of school pupils and students.

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