Government urged to try 4-day work week amid traffic

MANILA, Philippines — The government should try to implement the proposed four-day work week for a month to see if it will help ease traffic problems in Metro Manila, lawyer Romulo Macalintal said yesterday.

“This is not a permanent scheme but a mere suggestion while government is still finding ways to solve our traffic problem. We can experiment on this proposal for one month and see how it works,” Macalintal said in a statement.

He said hours may be adjusted accordingly to insure that workers still put in 40 hours of work for the same weekly salaries by working 10 hours a day.

The Senate and the House of Representatives has a four-day work week, hence, there seems no reason why the same could not be adopted in Metro Manila while the government is finding a solution to this problem, said Macalintal.

Under the proposal, a special holiday maybe declared in the following cities: Monday for the cities of Manila, Taguig and Valenzuela; Tuesday for Quezon City, Pateros and Caloocan; Wednesday for Muntinlupa, Makati and Pasig; Thursday for Malabon, Marikina and San Juan; and Friday for Pasay, Parañaque, Navotas and Las Piñas.

The MMDA earlier implemented a ban on single-rider cars along EDSA, which was strongly opposed by the public and even by some senators.

MMDA said around 260,000 vehicles are plying EDSA daily.

“If three cities will have no work per day, it means 16,250 less vehicles per city or almost 50,000 less vehicles per day in EDSA,” Macalintal said.

In Metro Manila, the total labor force is around five million or an average of 312,000 employees per city. If three cities will have no work in one day, this translates to a daily reduction of 937,000 people making trips in Metro Manila, he pointed out.