Poland's reduced working hours pilot: 57.4% fewer customer-complaint errors in preliminary data

Preliminary results of a state pilot project to reduce working hours in Poland indicate fewer employee errors and greater timeliness in completing tasks, ua.news reports, citing RMF24. The analyses by Poland's Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy cover employees involved in the pilot since the beginning of the year. ua.newsua.newsua.newsOpen source ↗

Errors and deadlines

The average number of errors resulting in customer complaints in the pilot participants' group was 13.2 per thousand employees. In the comparison group, where working hours were not reduced, the figure was 31 errors per thousand employees. The number of such errors among participants was therefore 57.4% lower.

Employees covered by the pilot completed 90.4% of tasks by the set deadline. In the group without reduced working hours, this figure was 77.5%, a difference of nearly 13 percentage points.

At one water supply company, the average time to detect water pipeline failures in the first half of 2026 fell from 1.7 hours to 30 minutes compared with the same period in 2025. The time to detect sewer failures fell from 1.9 hours to one hour. ua.newsua.newsua.newsOpen source ↗

Pilot design and participants

The programme runs from 1 January to 31 December 2026. In the first half of the year, participants were to reduce working hours by 10%, and in the second half by 20%. The pilot involves 78 entities, 38 private and 40 public, with nearly 5,000 employees in total.

Participants use different models: a four-day working week with an additional day off, a working day shorter by one or two hours, or additional days off during the month.

Four private entities left the programme because of difficulties meeting its requirements, including those related to reducing working hours and maintaining employment. The ministry plans to prepare final results and recommendations in spring 2027. ua.newsua.newsua.newsOpen source ↗