Russia is among the leading countries in Europe where employees regularly work night or weekend shifts, recent research published by the Moscow-based Higher School of Economics (HSE) has said.
Nearly half of Russians polled last month said they don’t support the idea of a four-day work week over fears that it would reduce their income. Despite long hours at work, the Russian workforce’s productivity is among the lowest of the world’s major economies.
Almost two-thirds (64%) of employed Russians work in the evenings, nights or weekends, HSE says.
Workers from Croatia, Greece and Poland deviated from a typical work schedule the most (71%, 70% and 65% each), the research published on June 27 showed.
Workers from Israel, the Netherlands and Bulgaria were the most likely to adhere to standard nine-to-five, Monday-Friday schedules (44%, 49% and 50% respectively).
The study's authors stressed that existing research is severely lacking on the prevalence of atypical work schedules in Russia.
“Given that a significant number of Russian workers have additional employment and various other earnings (up to one-third of workers, according to some estimates), the real scale of evening, night and weekend work is likely underestimated,” they wrote.
The authors based their assessment of average work weeks on data from the European Social Survey (ESS) in 26 European countries and Israel.
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