The program will be applicable to about 10,000 “regional” employees, who are hired locally and not subject to transfers, at its Uniqlo outlets.
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The four-day workweek initiative is designed for workers to spend time on child-rearing and nursing care, and for the clothing giant to keep qualified employees on its payroll.
Around 10,000 full-time employees in Uniqlo’s Japan stores will be allowed to work four 10-hour days in exchange for a three-day weekend, parent company Fast Retailing confirmed to Bloomberg.
In October, Uniqlo’s parent company, Fast Retailing, will let about one-fifth of the company’s full-time employees in Japan work only four days a week, Kim Bhasin at Bloomberg reports. About 22 percent of Japanese workers put in more than 49 hours a week, compared with 16 percent of U.S. workers, according to data reported in The Guardian.
The firm will also consider introducing the new system for full-time workers at its headquarters as well as at its cheaper GU stores, the sources said. Only 10 per cent, however, of those employers, usually small companies, offer the perk to all their workers, the survey found. A big challenge to the four-day work week is that most of the world operates on a five-day schedule.
“Their satisfaction goes way up when they have control over their time”. Chief executive Ryan Carson said employee retention was “amazing”.
And the company will have a better chance of holding on to their employees, reducing the high turnover rate and costs of retraining new workers, a common problem at most retailers.
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Uniqlo has come under fire in the past for the working conditions in its Chinese factories, revealed in detail in journalist Masuo Yokota’s 2011 book The Glory and Disgrace of Uniqlo. Following internal investigations, the retailer has promised to take action to ensure “appropriate working conditions” for the people who make its clothing. Uniqlo also tried to sue the book’s publisher, but was unsuccessful.
