Kaduna state will begin a transition to a four-day working week from December 1, the state government has announced.

The government said, in the interim, it will permit public servants to work from home on Fridays. Eventually, the new measure will also affect the organised private sector in the state.

This was contained in a statement issued on Monday by Muyiwa Adekeye, Media Adviser to Governor Nasir El-Rufai.

According to the statement, the measure is designed to help boost productivity, improve work-life balance and enable workers to have more time for their families, for rest and for agriculture.

“The measure also reflects lessons learnt from managing the Covid-19 pandemic which required significant relaxations of old working traditions and the ascendance of virtual and remote working arrangements.

“Kaduna State Government will begin implementation of the transitional arrangements in the public service of the state from 1st December 2021. From that date, working hours for public servants are adjusted to 8 a.m-5 p.m, Monday to Friday.

“However, all public servants, other than those in schools and healthcare facilities, will work from home on Fridays. This interim working arrangement will subsist until the government is ready to move to the next stage of the transition which will culminate in the four-day week across all MDAs in the state.

“Senior officials are working on detailed guidelines to ensure that the emergency services and the education and health systems in the state continue to deliver services 24 hours a day, seven days a week during the transition and beyond.

“The government will also ramp up its efforts to give public servants access to digital devices and platforms to enable them work effectively from home. Given the significant investments the state government is making in ICT, it will ensure that most of its automated services deliver the levels of performance required to give citizens seamless access.

“The state government expects the required legal and regulatory framework to be in place by January 2022. This will also enable the organised private sector to engage with the process and agree a longer transition period to a four-day working week,” the statement said.

PT