UN Proposal: The 40 Hour Work Week

[Boktavia II]

The 40 Hour Workweek

A resolution to reduce income inequality and increase basic welfare.
 

Category: Social Justice
Strength: Significant
Proposed by: Free Soviets

Description: 1. The maximum standard full-time workweek shall be set at 40 hours. Nations shall remain free to set their workweeks lower than this.

2. No one may be contractually obligated to work more than 40 hours per week, except for the following exemptions,
a ) military personnel
b ) civil defense forces
c ) civilian emergency response personnel
Excepting military personnel, these exemptions shall only apply during emergency situations.

3. No one may be contractually obligated to remain on the worksite without pay.

4. On call hours shall count against the 40 hour limit.

5. Work exceeding 40 hours per week that is voluntarily undertaken shall not exceed a total of 80 hours per week, and shall be paid at a rate of at least time and a half or an equivalent pro-rata time off in lieu. Nations shall remain free to set their allowable overtime hours lower and their overtime pay rates higher than specified in this proposal.

6. The 40 hour week shall be implemented in a manner that does not reduce the standard of living of the workers. Nations shall enact the laws needed to comply with the 40 hour week within 1 year of the passing of this resolution and they may phase in the changes over the course of up to 4 years. The necessary changes must be fully implemented within 5 years of the passing of this resolution.

7. In time of declared emergencies the national government may suspend this directive to any sector of the workforce it deems essential to the effective running of the country for the duration of that emergency.

[Henneth annun]

People should be able to work as long as they can! Henneth annun was built on the rule "Work till you drop!"

[The Undaunted]

Yeah, thats a terrible UN Proposal. Obviously, different jobs will require different amounts of work, and if need be, people should be allowed to work over 40 hours. The government should not be allowed to regulate how businesses run themselves.

[Grub (Lenlyvit)]

That is one horrible proposal. I would definitely vote against it.

[Bad Infinitum]

What the crap?

NO!

[Sheynat]

I would like to point out that mine is the vote for it. That is invalid; do not count that vote. Subtract one from whatever positive total you recieve. My mouse is glitchy; and I was trying to click NO but mistakenly hit YES.

[Kaom]

i am for it. i will explain why later. no time, must go back to work

[TheSensitiveNewAge]

Sometimes a company needs people to work overtime, and sometimes people need to work overtime to make some extra money. No on my part.

[Kaom]

okay here is why i am for it. do the math.
lets first just assume that we are dealing with a real world type week. monday - friday, off on saturday and sunday and pay is hourly not salery. there are a total of 120 hours monday - friday. 45 hours spent at work, 8-5 with a 1 hour lunch. the average person sleeps 40 hours, 8 hours a night. allow 5 hours a week in comute time. 7.5 hours a week in the morning getting ready. 5 hours a week at night cooking and eating diner. that is a total of 102.5 hours a week of just work and work related things. 17.5 hours remain. that is only 3.5 hours a day of your own time.
i know if i were an employee and not the leader there is no way i could get everything i wanted done, done. if i want my nation to run smoothly than i have to make my people happy. big buissnes is really the only one who will benefit, sure consumers would to because products and services would be cheeper but the quality would also suffer.
so.......... i say
YES!

[Kellopalopalis]

The proposal says "No one may be contractually obligated to work more than 40 hours per week." It doesn't say that workers can't work longer hours if they would like to or for extra pay. This is a great way to help workers.

[Parthini]

Bah! More stupid French socialistic crap spewing forth from the Red UN.

Kaom, from your math, it also means that a person gets two days off a week. Thats 65.5 hours of free time a week out of 168 hours per week. That means that they would spend 38% of their time doing whatever they want. That is a lot of time. This would also include the usual allowances of vacation and sick leaves.

Secondly, what is the UN doing regulating what businesses do? It's not like having a 50 hour work week is beating employees with an iron rod for 12 hours. They get paid. Communism, BAH!

GPP

[Kaom]

i think this comes from to full time job other than school experience. yes there still are week ends but once things like housework, running errands etc are done its already sunday. in the "grown up" world there is just not enough time. if you notice i factored no family time. just alone time. depending on the size of the family some people need 30 hour days with 10 day weeks. if work time was controled more, than life is better all around. oh than factor in friend time. think of school like work but no friends. most people dont work with friends, so you have to allow for time to see them. now factor in Nation States time.
why do you think i stay up till 2-3 am everynight? i have to be at work at 8. oh i work 40 hours a week. i have worked longer weeks that was worse. i did 6, 12 hour days a week for a few years. all i did was work and sleep. i never saw my husband, family or friends.
it needs to be regulated
like they say
time is money

[The Peoples of Yavanna]

I understand what Kaom is saying. Especially as a person who works ungodly hours.

that being said...
my problem with this basically lies in recently graduated doctors, medical interns. If they are limited to 40 voluntary hours a week, and paid time and a half thereafter, then what are we, as nations, looking at? If hospitals have to pay this expense for their learning, what is that going to do for the cost of healthcare? And for those nations who have socialized healthcare, how does that effect their taxes for the cost of the healthcare? Do the peoples themselves pay the cost? And what of those nations that are dictatorships, and look for this excessive work to be voluntary, and unpaid?

Essentially, we as a nation worry about the cost. One of the challenging things for me with this game is: That although proposals sound good and look sound to my eyes in the "real world" as a working stiff, or appeal to my politics in "real life", when I look at them in RP eyes as the head of a nation, they look radically different. The ramifications for my nation in the game far outweigh how I sometimes wish the world was...especially when I am trying to adhere to a particular political doctrine. Our taxes as a nation are already outlandish, our economy fragile. As a nation, I cannot, in good conscience, vote for this proposal, even though my "real world" heart likes it. It does not make good economic sense for my country, and our moral objections are outweighed in this instance.

Allowing the UN to dictate my economical practices is no way to run my country, especially where healthcare is concerned, for us. And to force them on non like-minded nations is abhorrent. The freedom to choose how to handle the economies of our individual nations is paramount, and should be placed in the hands of our individual nations, not the UN.

[Sheynat]

I'm all for people not being allowed to force employees to work more than forty hours. What I ain't for is people not voluntarily being able to accept extra hours. I know this doesn't say whether you can work extra hours; that's my problem. That puts it in a legal grey area which will require further legislation. Second, while I like most of the things that come through the UN, I usually vote against them because they end up forcing liberalism on conservatives. Me no likey.

[Down under there]

I wholeheartedly support the 40-hour workweek limit, but I do not think it should be within the powers of the UN to regulate. This is really getting into micromanagement territory. So a no vote from me.

[Re-Yupanqui]

A no vote comes from Yups too... I think thats MY decision and also varies by profession.

[3rd Armored Division]

It passed. The UN is now one of the few organizations that both sucks AND blows.

Or has it always been like that?

[The Undaunted]

Eh, its kinda always been like that.

It sucks that the resolution passed, it was so close too, only about a hundred votes difference between yes and no. If it had been up for another day or two, it probably wouldn't have been passed.

[Henneth annun]

My Economy went down a notch! Just in time for the CMEA meeting, too! dang!!

[Parthini]

Boktavia said:

7. In time of declared emergencies the national government may suspend this directive to any sector of the workforce it deems essential to the effective running of the country for the duration of that emergency.

Hmm... It seems that Parthini has just been declared in a state of war....

GPP

[The Peoples of Yavanna]

Yeah, this resolution kinda killed what was left of my teetering economy...just great. Thanks, UN.