It may be a sign of public discontent with returning to work after Christmas that news of supposed plans for a four-day week in Finland spread so rapidly around the world yesterday.

Reports from national publications across Europe, regrettably including this website, noted support from Sanna Marin, Finland’s prime minister, for the introduction of a shorter working week.

The only problem is a four-day week is not part of the Finnish government's plans and is not expected to be government policy in the near future.

An official from Ms Marin’s office told The Independent that the policy was “more of a future vision and a potential future goal for the Social Democratic Party (SDP)”.

Nevertheless, the story spread so widely that the government was forced to issue an official correction on social media, pointing out that there are no mentions of a four-day week in the government’s programme and insisting the issue is not on their agenda.

Even Päivi Anttikoski, the Finnish government’s communication director, has said it is “a complete mystery” how the story ended up being published by so many websites.

Here’s where the story came from and how it spread around the world.
1Where did the four-day week story come from?

There is a small amount of truth to the reports, in the sense that Finland’s prime minister is supportive of a four-day week in theory.

When Ms Marin was the minister of transport and communications in August 2019, she made a brief comment in support of the idea during a panel discussion at the SDP's 120th anniversary event.

“A four-day work week, a six-hour workday. Why couldn’t it be the next step? Is eight hours really the ultimate truth?” she said, according to the Helsinki Times newspaper.

“I believe people deserve to spend more time with their families, loved ones, hobbies and other aspects of life, such as culture. This could be the next step for us in working life.”

Ms Marin also tweeted about the idea after the panel and said “shorter working hours can and should be discussed.”

“A 4-day week or a 6-hour day with a decent wage may be a utopia today, but may be true in the future,” she said.

These comments, which were briefly reported on in Finland at the time, appear to be the entire basis of all the news stories that have emerged in recent days.
2How did the story end up being published in the UK?

The claim appears to have been misconstrued as it was recirculated.

There was understandably a renewed interest in Ms Marin’s political views after she was elected as Finland’s prime minister in December 2019 at the remarkably young age of 34.

A Huffington Post profile soon after her election made a passing reference to her comments, although it incorrectly combined the four-day week and six-hour day ideas to make a 24-hour working week.

The story then floated around the internet for a few weeks, popping up on an Austrian website called Kontrast (on 16 December) and a website called New Europe (on 2 January).

The latter story framed Ms Marin’s suggestion as a “call” for policy change.

According to the website News Now Finland, its opening paragraph said: “Sanna Marin, Finland’s new Prime Minister since early December, has called for the introduction of a flexible working schedule in the country that would foresee a 4-day-week and 6-hours working day.”

The spread of the story then increased rapidly when MailOnline, one of the most visited news websites in the world, published a story entitled “Finland to introduce a four-day working week and SIX-HOUR days under plans drawn up by 34-year-old prime minister Sanna Marin”.

From there, Ms Marin’s comments spread, with varying degrees of scepticism, to news outlets across the world. These outlets included The Independent.
3Is Finland going to have a four-day week?

Ms Marin’s comments were simply stating an aspiration - so in short, you shouldn’t plan on moving to Finland if you’re looking for shorter working hours.

In August, her suggestion was met with opposition from some politicians, such as Arto Satonen (from the centre-right National Coalition Party) who tweeted in response: “Does the SDP live in the real world?”

Similarly, Antti Kurvinen, an MP for the Centre Party, said he did not believe a shorter working week was “a realistic idea in the short or medium term”.

“It does feel difficult to fund our well-being while reducing working time. Our problem is rather that there’s too much unemployment and working doesn’t pay,” Mr Kurvinen told the Finnish newspaper Uusi Suomi.

Most importantly, the government has made it very clear that it is not planning on introducing a four-day week in the near future.

Ms Marin is also unsurprisingly not going to comment on the issue again any time soon, according to Mr Anttikoski.

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