Михаил Попов - Working Day Reduction as the Ground of Modern Economic Development

Thus, the free time rate of nonproduction sphere employees, exceeding 1 many times, is close to the value of the free time rate of the society. First of all, it is connected to the fact that the whole volume of labour in social production is fulfilled by employees of the proper sphere what assists in increasing in the free time rate of employees rendering services. On the other hand, a part of disabled members of the society (little children, elderly people, people with restricted abilities), possessing time for nonproduction social activities, does not participate in fulfilling domestic labour what increases workload on people occupied in the nonproduction sphere.

It is essential that the free time rate of these employees does not depend on duration of their working time. The way time of their activities is distributed among labour and leisure is certainly significant for conditions of a human’s development. Still, social economic homogeneity is peculiar to such labour and leisure as types of nonproduction social activities, opposing to material production labour in this quality.

When calculating the free time rate of employees combining labour in production and the services sphere let us suppose that labour time in housekeeping coincides with its duration at modern employees. From these prerequisites and using the data on the funds of production and nonproduction activities of the society we can calculate the average quantity of the free time rate of such an employee (table 31).

As it follows from the data, at the existing in the modern countries ratio of the funds of production and nonproduction activities of the society the annual rate of free time per one employee exceeds 3 in most of the studied countries, and in case of Italy and Korea it approximates to this magnitude.

Thus, the achieved level of social labour productivity allows each able-bodied member of the society, provided distribution of production activities among all able-bodied people, spending the main part of their time on those kinds of activities which are either directly connected to development of human abilities or, in general, more favorable for a person, as compared to labour in production.

Table 31

The Annual Free Time Rate of Employees Combining Labour in Production and Rendering Services

As a rule, the free time rates of employees are higher in the countries with the higher free time rate of the society, accordingly, with higher labour productivity. Surely, at equality of members of the society in fulfilled kinds of labour a closer dependence of improvement of the social economic state of everyone from increasing in social labour productivity is viewed than in the situation of significant social economic inequality.

In all the countries, except for Canada, the average annual number of hours of production activities per one employee reduced during the examined 15 years. Undoubtedly, during a longer period this tendency would show in Canada too.

The viewed objectively possible situation is characterized by equality of able-bodied members of the society according to the criterion of combining production and nonproduction social activities. What is the source of economic development in this situation? – The contradiction between new needs for ensuring free development and existing prerequisites of their realization. As a result of increasing in the typical free time rate, equality of members of the society is supposed as guaranteeing more favorable opportunities for everyone’s development. In this sense the social economic state of employees in the beginning of a certain period and in its end is not identical. This moment of inequality forms the contradiction of economic development in this situation.

It is reasonable to compare the values of the annual free time rates of industrial employees, employees rendering services, and employees combining these kinds of labour (table 32).

Table 32

The Annual Free Time Rates of Industrial Employees, Nonproduction Sphere Employees, and Employees Combining these Kinds of Labour

As the data above show, the rank of the free time rates of industrial employees may not correspond to the rank of the similar rates at combination of economically heterogeneous kinds of labour. In 1993 in Italy this index for industrial employees was identical to Canada’s index, and in 2007 it exceeded it. Meanwhile, the rate possible at combination of labour in production and rendering services was significantly higher in Canada. The FRG and Sweden exceeded the USA in the value of this rate for industrial employees, yielding to the level possible at the noted combination. This difference shows that in the countries with a higher rank of the free time rate of industrial employees conditions for development of such employees are formed more consistently.

It is indicative that in 2007 in most cases (except for the USA) the lag between the value of the free time rate of industrial employees and the rate possible at combination of different kinds of labour increased. In other words, at the existing inter-country differentiation in formation of conditions for development of employees of the production sphere the general tendency to decreasing in the measure of utilization for them of the potential made by increasing in social labour productivity showed. What was said before does not mean absence of progress in the social economic state of employees: duration of their working time decreased in most of the countries, and the free time rate increased. The problem is that progress of prerequisites of development went slower than it was objectively possible.

The free time rate of nonproduction sphere employees was taken as constant what is, to a certain extent, consistent with the fact of slower reduction of domestic labour time, as compared to labour in social production. Anyway, there is an almost fivefold excess of the value of the studied rate for employees rendering services over the rate typical for industrial employees. Social economic inequality among big groups of employees, depending on predominance of production labour or rendering services in their activities, bringing about significant inequality in conditions for their development, is kept. At inadequate realization of the potential of increasing in the free time rate of industrial employees this inequality will reproduce itself in the future.

Though at combination of different kinds of labour the rate remains lower than the rate of nonproduction sphere employees, but it tends to faster approximation to it, and the main point is that it ensures each able-bodied person with multiple predominance of time of nonproduction social activities over working time in production.

Thus, modern economic development is characterized by, on one hand, formation of possibilities for free all-round development of each member of the society and, on the other hand, by inadequate realization of these possibilities.

The analysis is abstracted from the fact that average annual working time can be realized at different work-rest schedules during a working day, week, and month. Meanwhile, the specificity of these schedules influences possibilities of development of members of the society. That is why it is reasonable to view problems of the dynamics of working time, taking into account this specificity.