Almost a year after the Ministry of Labor will implement the first voluntary pilot plan of reduced working hours– in which the number of hours worked weekly by 492 workers from six public and private institutions was cut from 44 to 36 – this program still does not have a definitive date for its extension.
The Minister of Labor, Eddy Olivaresqualifies that the pilot – implemented during the administration of Luis Miguel de Camps – was “successful” and “correct”, because it presented positive results for the productivity and well-being of companies and workers, and indicated that he is motivated to plan a possible expansion of this plan.
However, the official avoided giving specific dates or deadlines for when it would be resumed, or whether the results demonstrate the viability of proposing this modality to the National Labor Council–as reported last August–, a decision that would transform the dynamics of the formal labor market Dominican, which employed 5,149,829 people as of the third quarter of 2025.
“I think that when the working day is reduced in our country it will be a product of consensus and convenience“he pondered Olive Groves.
He indicated that resuming the expansion of the project implies carrying out a more detailed analysis by productive sector, to determine in which segments it would be most effective and convenient to reduce the working day – especially, taking into account those in which the productive chain or the intensive work It is critical.
Companies have not yet implemented it
To date, it is unknown if fruit of this programother companies were motivated to reduce their working hours.
Olive Groves explained that some of the public and private institutions that participated in this first pilot – in which the Northern Electricity Distribution Company participated (Edenorte), Haina Electricity Generating Company (EgeHaina), Ergotec, IMCA, Single Beneficiary System (Siuben) and National Health Insurance (Senasa) – have maintained the cuts in hours to work beyond the project, but acknowledged that it is something about which they have not received information until now.
“It is likely that some isolated Dominican companies may be exploring schedule flexibility –such as flexible entry and exit practices or compressed days–, but we don’t have one official statistics nor a consolidated list of companies that currently apply reduced working hours outside the pilot,” he pointed out.
The first voluntary pilot plan for a reduced work week included the participation of the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM) and reduced the weekly hours of 492 workers from the aforementioned organizations by 15% between February and July of last year.
As a result, business objectives were fully met in 91% of cases and “almost always” in the remaining 9%, indicating that productivity was not adversely affected in the study. Likewise, 96% of supervisors did not require the hiring of more staff to maintain normal operations.
Added to this is that quality of life and well-being increased significantly: stress decreased by 76% in employees and an improvement in the balance between work and personal life was observed by 88.6%, according to the perception of workers.
A successful modality
For Olive Grovesshorter work hours have shown to add economic benefitssocial and organizational in those countries that have implemented it.
“Almost in all Europe The working day has been reduced. Two examples are Netherlands –global reference for labor flexibility– (…) and Germany that, in sectors such as advanced manufacturing and the automotive industry, their companies have found in reducing working hours a formula to attract talent, reduce absenteeism and increase the quality of work,” he emphasized.
He indicated that the countries that have the shorter days in Europe are:
- Netherlandswith 32.1 hours per week
- Norway (with 33.7)
- Austria, Germany and Denmark, all with 33.9 hours per week.
In that sense, consider that the pilot plan has represented a successful first step for a modality that could increase productivity in the formal labor market Dominican.
