WILL THE NEW SCHEDULE BE ON TIME?

There may well be changes in the work schedule for organizations in the public and private sectors, as well as educational establishments, in Azerbaijan in the near future, and many of us will have to get up an hour or half-an-hour earlier or later. Deputy Prime Minister Abid Sarifov spoke about the possibility of these changes recently. He said that, as a rule, institutions and public offices open up at 9 a.m. or 8.30. "We can't instruct the private sector, but we are asking the relevant structures and recommending them to have talks with the private sector so they can start work at 7.30 or 8 a.m. In the public sector it will be from 8.30 to 9.30 and in the banking sector work is due to start at 10 a.m.," he said.

Abid Sarifov said that world experience shows that in other countries the working day usually starts earlier than it does here. "That's not just in Europe, but the rest of the world, too," he said.

The root of the problem

The main reason that prompted the local authorities to think about such changes was the huge amount of congestion which increases once the school year starts in September. Azar Allahveranov, an expert on migration and transport problems, was upbeat about the review of the work schedule. He said the main build-up of traffic starts during the peak hours when people are going to and returning from work and ferrying children to school and playschool. "At least we can try out these measures as part of a pilot project," the expert says, "and if it is carefully thought through it could bring results."

Of course, this immediately raises a whole number of other questions. Logically, the time for starting classes in educational establishments will also have to be reviewed. But this is the tricky part: if the start of work in different sectors is different, and in schools and playschools quite different again, will parents be able to handle the work schedule of their children? Generally speaking, a reasonable way-out of this situation would be to introduce the practice of school buses, but all this comes under the jurisdiction of other organizations and means money has to come out of the budget for it.

The head of the press service of the Main State Traffic Police Department, Kamran Aliyev, also believes that a variable schedule of the working day could ease traffic on the roads. However, Nariman Agayev, Chairman of the Sustainable Development Research Centre, claims that such changes are not very effective because they don't reduce the amount of congestion very much and they can also be ineffective in all other spheres. In his view, the private sector doesn't need to start work so early and people have problems adapting to these changes which, of course, reduces their performance levels. The problem of congestion does not have to be resolved in such a radical way, the expert believes. The first thing that needs to be done is to relieve pressure on the city centre, to widen the roads and set up traffic lights and awareness-building among pedestrians and drivers. At the same time, he recommends streamlining the highway infrastructure and approaching the problem in an integrated manner. Bearing in mind that September and the start of classes are near at hand, these questions must be resolved as a matter of urgency. However, all these planned innovations are still at the project stage and, as its initiator Abid Sarifov said, we are not in a position to put pressure on private organizations and we can only instruct the relevant structures to carry out awareness-building and advisory work.

World experience

As far as world experience is concerned, it differs from country to country. As a rule, in southern countries, where the day becomes hot very quickly, work usually starts early, often at 7 a.m. For example, because of its hot climate, the working day in Greece begins at 6 or 7 a.m., but it ends by 1 or 2 p.m. or is interrupted during the hot period until 5 or 6 p.m. Like the Spanish, the Greeks sometimes call this long period a siesta. The same applies to the neighbouring southern countries, with a few starting their working day at 9 a.m.

The exception is the aforementioned Spain. Here, the working day starts at 9 a.m. and lasts until 2 p.m, and in the subsequent two hours there is a siesta when you can go out or hang out with friends at the nearest cafe. The Spanish come home at 7 p.m.

In France, major companies and public organizations start their working day at 8 a.m. irrespective of the region. This law came into force in 1919 and has not been changed once since then. France, incidentally, was one of the first countries to introduce an eight-hour working day in Europe.

The Germans also, as a rule, start work at 8 a.m. precisely. Of course, all these procedures do not apply to the services sphere, such as hairdressers, hotels and cinemas. Cake-shop workers in Germany go to work at 4 a.m. Incidentally, schools there start work at 7 a.m. In the USA, the working day also commences at 8 a.m. in public offices, schools and major companies.

Japan is very different from all these countries. Companies and public offices open, like they do here, at 9 a.m. and are supposed to stop work at 5 p.m. But in reality the situation is somewhat different. The well-known Japanese mentality does not permit staff to leave work before the boss. Neighbouring Russia and Georgia are closest to Azerbaijan in terms of an "idle" work schedule.

Be that as it may, it is common knowledge that many organizations in Azerbaijan now start their working day at different times. This factor does not appear to impact in any particular way on the volume of traffic on the roads. There has always been congestion, and there still is. That is why the initiative for a complete review of the work schedule in the country's organizations and offices must be carefully considered and analyzed. Obviously, this question cannot be resolved overnight by one simple stroke on the paper - the experts will have plenty to think about but time is very short.