Mich "Why Differential Free Time Policies are Indispensable for Labour Justice – and Why We Need the ‘Arne Work Week’"

Mardi intime de la Chaire Hoover par Jens Jorund Tyssedal

In this paper I argue that labour justice requires differential free time policies such as longer holidays and a shorter working week for people with harder and less attractive work by examining a recent pensions reform in Denmark. This so-called ‘Arne-pension’ aims at giving a right to earlier retirement to workers with the longest careers and the physically most arduous work. I examine four rationales that were used or could be used to support this policy: (I) time in the labour market; (II) differences in longevity and health; (III) compensation for physical ardour; and (IV) compensation for low work quality broadly understood. I argue that the three last of these are not only strong rationales for differentiated retirement, but require going further, to differentiated free time policies such as a differentiated working week and holidays. Finally, I argue that other labour market policies often discussed in contemporary political theory, such as the basic income or workplace democracy have little to offer to solve the problem of hard work. Therefore, differentiated free time policies are indispensable to labour justice.