work week | The Adobo Chronicles

Workers at a call center in the Philippines

MANILA, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles® ) – In the Philippines — a predominantly Catholic country — the Pope’s word is treated as law, even when it comes to political, economic and social matters. Like work hours.

Pope Francis told the faithful at his weekly general audience at the Vatican that “millions of men and women, even children, are slaves to work,” and that this “is against God and against the dignity of the human person.”

“Moments of rest, he said,”give people time to enjoy the fruits of their labor.”

Heeding the pope’s advice, a bipartisan group of Philippine legislators proposed that the country adopt a three-day work week for all employees, so that they would have more time to rest and enjoy the fruits of their labor.

The draft bill mandates that although workers will be required to report for work just three days each week, they will be paid the equivalent of five days of work.

If passed by Congress, President NoyNoy Aquino, a devout Catholic, promised to sign the proposed bill into law.

Labor unions praised the proposal, but companies operating call centers are strongly against it, saying they will lose huge contracts from foreign companies that expect the centers to be staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Senator Nancy Binay has introduced an amendment which would exempt call centers from the proposed three-day work week. Binay’s amendment would also grant a similar exemption for workers in vital services such as doctors & nurses, police officers and firefighters.

Political analysts are saying that a three-day work week –if staggered — could finally solve the country’s nagging traffic problems since it would cut by almost half the number of employees trying to get to work in any given day of the week.

MADISON, Wisconsin (The Adobo Chronicles) – Forget about Daylight Saving Time. The debate about whether Americans should wake up one hour early or one hour later was so yesterday! If the Republicans have their way, they’d rather implement ‘Weekend Saving Time.’ Or WST.

Say what?

It means your entire weekend will disappear.

Wisconsin state Sen. Glenn Grothman (R) wants to roll back one of the state’s progressive labor laws, arguing that workers should be allowed to work without a day off if they so choose.

“Right now in Wisconsin, you’re not supposed to work seven days in a row, which is a little ridiculous because all sorts of people want to work seven days a week,” he told The Huffington Post in an interview.

Wisconsin is one of the few states in the nation where businesses “must provide employees with at least one period consisting of 24 consecutive hours of rest in each calendar week.” This doesn’t mean that workers get to take off once every seven days; an employee could work for up to 12 consecutive days “if the days of rest fall on the first and last days of the 2 week period.”

Grothman said he finds this law “a little goofy,” and he argued that rolling it back is a matter of “freedom.”

He’s proposing legislation that “would allow an employee to voluntarily choose to work without one day of rest in seven,” according to an email sent by his office to other state lawmakers on Friday. State Rep. Mark Born (R) is leading the legislation in the state Assembly.

Newly-declared presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz (R, Texas) actually likes the idea. Very much.

So there you have it, be prepared to roll back your weekend. Or roll it forward? Nah. How about give it up forever?