Scania introducing four-day week for 12,000 employees in Sweden

Scania has agreed with the unions concerned on a four-day week for all employees in its Swedish operations starting in June.

“I welcome the decision of our employees to help out the company in these difficult times. Their willingness to make personal sacrifices shows great support for the company’s strategy to deal with the very sharp decline in market demand without further employee cutbacks. Scania will stand well equipped when the market rebounds,” says Leif ?stling, President and CEO of the company.

The four-day week will be introduced in June and cover employees and managers at production, research and development units as well as administration and corporate staff units at Scania’s operations in Sweden - some 6,000 white collar employees and 6,000 workshop employees in all.

The agreement will apply for six months, with a break for holidays. Scania undertakes not to issue any lay-off notice during the period of the agreement.

The four-day week is a key element of Scania's strategy to preserve the collective competency of the company despite a very sharp decline in market demand.

Scania has already introduced various forms of working hour reductions for more than 2,000 employees in the Netherlands, France, Germany and elsewhere.