The Long Weekend is Back on the Table

When Silvan Shalom was pushed to resign with a scandal and investigation brewing, I assumed that was the end of the movement to turn Sundays in Israel into a long weekend. While Silvan Shalom was not the first one to think of the idea, he was the main person in the Knesset that actually pushed it to the point where it was relatively close to being considered seriously. When he went away, I assumed this would too. I did not think it had enough gravitas on its own, he had not gotten it enough momentum to carry on without him, and nobody was spotted taking the gauntlet from him.
Sure enough, today we are greeted with surprising news..
MK Eli Cohen (Kulanu) has announced the initiative to turn Sundays into a vacation day, a long weekend. Not every Sunday, at least not initially, but once a month.
According to Cohen this would work in the following fashion. Each person would be granted an additional 12 vacation days above and beyond what he or she already gets. In exchange for those 12 days, the workday will be extended by an additional 15-20 minutes to make up that work time.

Cohen explains the importance of this to help improve the quality of life here and all the usual flexibility it will give to us - sports, tiyulim, time with family, religion, etc. And, it will knock Israel more into line with the long weekends found in much of the world.
Cohen says that while in the past the labor unions opposed the idea, they are now coming to an agreement and says the differences between them are small and it is possible that in 2017 this will already go into effect.
source: Channel 2 News
If this comes to be, part of the stipulation of those additional 12 vacation should be that they can only be used on Sundays once a month. Otherwise people will simply use them on their vacations to Europe or wherever and then the purpose will have been lost.

I know some employers are against the idea. Some say extending the workday is not beneficial, as the workday is already long and studies show efficiency goes down with that extra time, so the employers might get some more time out of their employees per day but that time will largely be wasted. I also suspect that they already benefit, often but not always, from employees who stay far longer than their required work hours, and rarely have to actually pay overtime (because of global contracts and the like), so adding 15 or 20 minutes to each day does nothing for them, as so many employees are already working at that time anyway, and one day a month will be deducted instead.
Personally I look forward to this coming to fruition.
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