Spain May Switch Time Zone To Boost Productivity

The Spanish government is reportedly considering moving its clocks back by an hour in order to improve workers’ eating and sleeping habits, according to a BBC report on Friday, following the release of a parliamentary report backing the time-zone switch.

The Spanish government is reportedly considering moving its clocks back by an hour in order to improve workers’ eating and sleeping habits, according to a BBC report on Friday, following the release of a parliamentary report backing the time-zone switch.

The document by a parliamentary commission said that Spain had been in the wrong time zone for more than 71 years, after former dictator General Francisco Franco had moved it to be in line with Nazi Germany.

The document also said that following the “wrong clock” explained why Spaniards tended to eat, leave work and go to bed later than their European neighbours, resulting in “a negative effect on productivity, absenteeism, stress, accidents and school drop-out rates.”

[quote]”The fact that Spain for more than 71 years has not been in the correct time zone causes us to get up too early and sleep on average one hour less than the time recommended by the World Health Organisation,” said the report.[/quote]

Shifting the time zone would give Spain “more time for the family, for training, for personal life and leisure and would avoid wasted time during the workday,” the report added.

[quote]”The results would bring us into line with Europe in many respects in which we currently differ, particularly in productivity and competitiveness, in having a balanced family life and in sharing family duties.”[/quote]

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Nonetheless, the report still recommended doing a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis on the consequences of returning to the “correct” western European time zone, like neighbours Portugal.

As El Pais explains, the issue is not just a matter of turning the clocks, but adjusting a nation’s entire cultural schedule. Everything from public school class times to prime time TV would have to change, while many economists argue that artificial time zones make up in coordination what they lose in daylight hours.