Vedat Bilgin, Minister of Labor and Social Security, participated in the panel titled ‘Occupational Health and Safety Framework in Remote Working: Healthy and Productive Remote Working’ organized by the General Directorate of Occupational Health and Safety. Speaking in the program, Bilgin made remarkable evaluations about working hours.
THE CONCEPT OF SHIFT IS LEFT BEHIND
Stating that 8-5 shifts are left behind in today's working life, Bilgin said, “As a result, the days when people were forced to work for 12 hours, 14 hours are behind us. Today, we are going through a period where 8-5 working hours are behind. This is not enough to explain the change. We are going through a period in which the understanding and tradition of meeting in the same place and contributing to the production process has been eroded.”
REMOTE WORKING METHODS WILL BE EXPANDED
In the continuation of Minister Bilgin's statement, which caused the comments, ‘Do the working hours change?’, the following was noted: "We started to perceive 8 hours as normal. However, after new technologies and new information that replace human labor enter the production process, we need to think and criticize that 8-hour working hours are now a part of our old habit. Today, there are studies to reduce 8 hours in many countries. A pilot application was launched in the UK (United Kingdom) in the past few days. These will become widespread. Probably, after 25 years, 6 or less hours of physical work, and other forms of work, including remote work, will come into play. This is inevitable. These changes will inevitably occur as technology replaces labor and as technology disassociates the production process from space,” he added.