Four-Day Week
Regarding your article on working the four-day week (“Working 7 to 5--Four Days a Week,” Nov. 30), small organizations are caught in a bind between conflicting demands of two bureaucracies. Labor regulations say that a minimum of two-thirds of the hourly work force must work a 10-hour day, or none can. Their totals cannot be combined with the salaried employees. The Air Quality Management District says make less trips. The Labor Board says not unless two-thirds agree.
It is almost impossible to comply with AQMD demands when employees’ duties are scattered from the office to sales calls, home visits, school visits, etc. Car pooling, or cutting down on days just doesn’t work in those circumstances, yet the rules are applied to everyone.
The victim (the commuter) is blamed for the problems of gridlock and smog, but the blame really belongs on the planners who refuse to give us an efficient public transportation system and continue to add to the problem by giving us more freeway lanes instead of spending the tax money to develop an alternative.
BETTS HARLEY
Costa Mesa
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