In some countries which have a five-day
workweek
The weekdays and weekend are the complementary parts of the week devoted to labour and rest, respectively. The legal weekdays (British English), or workweek (American English), is the part of the seven-day week devoted to working. In most of t ...
with
Saturday
Saturday is the day of the week between Friday and Sunday. No later than the 2nd century, the Romans named Saturday ("Saturn's Day") for the planet Saturn, which controlled the first hour of that day, according to Vettius Valens. The day ...
and
Sunday being days off, on some occasions some Saturdays may be declared working Saturdays.
Subbotnik
In the former
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
,
subbotniks were days of voluntary unpaid labor.
Transferred working day
In the Soviet Union, modern
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
, and Hungary, the Friday following a public holiday that falls on Thursday and the Monday before one that falls on Tuesday are transferred to Saturdays to make longer runs of consecutive nonworking days. In this case the "bridge" Monday or Friday is treated as a Saturday in terms of time tables and working hours and the related "working Saturday" is treated as a normal work day. Over the two work weeks concerned, work is done on nine days with one work week running for six days and the other one for three. Employees always have the option of taking a day from their personal vacation allowance and using it to avoid working on the "working Saturday". Some employers and many education institutions treat the working Saturday as a regular one (giving a "free" day off in the former case).
For example in 2007 Russia held working Sundays on 28 April, 9 June, and 29 December in lieu of 30 April, 11 June, and 31 December, respectively.
This practice requires work on Saturday which is forbidden in Jewish law (
Shabbat). For this reason, Jews are sometimes offered the alternative of taking the "Working Saturday" off as an unpaid day. In reality the working Saturday is a day of low productivity due to a tired and resentful workforce. Thus it is often used for corporate team building activities and people often go home in the mid-afternoon. A number of shops follow their usual Saturday opening hours, closing early or not at all opening.
Romania
In
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...
, there was a six-day workweek until 1990. Initially there were an average of 48 working hours a week, but in 1982 and 1985 the communist government formally reduced the working hours to 46, and subsequently 45. In some areas a reduced workweek (''săptămână redusă de lucru'') was permitted, involving 1-2 extra work hours from Monday to Friday in exchange for a free Saturday, but this was only about flexibility of working program, not a real process of switching to a 5-day workweek. Unions in Romania were not independent, but obeyed the Communist Party, so they were not interested in fighting for workers rights. More than that, the censorship banned any information about the 5-day workweek (even this measure was implemented in USSR since 1967).
The process of transition to 5-day workweek started on 19 March 1990
[{{cite web , url=http://legislatie.just.ro/Public/DetaliiDocumentAfis/894 , title=DECRET-LEGE 95 14/03/1990 - Portal Legislativ ] with 2 free days a month, usually Saturdays. The same law stated that the term for finalizing the transition is the end of 3rd trimester (i.e. 30 September 1990).
See also
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Action Z
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Global Youth Service Day
Global Youth Service Day (GYSD), originally launched and known as National Youth Service Day in the United States, is a coordinated annual event which voluntary gathers young people around the world in conducting community service, service learni ...
*
International Volunteer Day
The International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development (5 December), more commonly referred to as International Volunteer Day (IVD), is an international observance mandated by the UN General Assembly in 1985. It offers an opportunity ...
*
International Year of Volunteers
International Year of Volunteers was designated for 2001 by the United Nations General Assembly. The initiative aimed at increased recognition, facilitation, networking and promotion of volunteering, to highlight the achievements of the millions of ...
*
Join Hands Day Join Hands Day is the first Saturday in May. It is a national volunteer day and annual event sponsored by the American Fraternal Alliance.
Background
The day was launched by what was then called America's Fraternal Benefit Societies in 2000, in pa ...
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Mandela Day
Nelson Mandela International Day (or Mandela Day) is an annual international day in honour of Nelson Mandela, celebrated each year on 18 July, Mandela's birthday. The day was officially declared by the United Nations in November 2009, with the ...
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MLK Day of service
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Mitzvah Day
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Random Acts of Kindness Day
Random Acts of Kindness Day is a day to celebrate and encourage random acts of kindness. "It's just a day to celebrate kindness and the whole pay it forward mentality", said Tracy Van Kalsbeek, executive director of the Stratford Perth Communit ...
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Sewa Day
Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA), meaning "service" in several Indian languages, is a trade union based in Ahmedabad, India, that promotes the rights of low-income, independently employed female workers. With over 1.6 million partici ...
*
Make A Difference Day
''USA Weekend'' was an American weekend newspaper magazine owned by the Gannett Company. Structured as a sister publication to Gannett's flagship newspaper ''USA Today'' and distributed in the Sunday editions of participating local newspapers, ...
*
World Kindness Day
World Kindness Day is an international observance on 13 November. It was introduced in 1998 by the World Kindness Movement, a coalition of nations' kindness NGOs. It is observed in many countries, including Canada, Australia, Nigeria and the Uni ...
References
Working time
Saturday events