The study showed employees get sick less, have lower stress, and work harder, improving productivity.

The Swedish government funded an experiment to see if a shorter workday can increase productivity and the conclusion is that it does.
The year long project, showed that employees who worked six hour days on an eight-hour salary took half as much sick time as those in the control group. And they were 2.8 times less likely to take any time off in a two-week period.
In a UK survey six out of 10 bosses agreed that cutting hours would improve productivity.
In the 1970s, Europeans worked slightly more than Americans.  Today average American works 25 hours a week; the average Frenchman 18; the average Italian a bit more than 16 and a half and  the hardest-working Europeans–the British, put in an average of 21.5 hours.
“The MUCH appears to be swimming against the current. Before the MUHC cuts into the bone marrow, on a work force that is already down to the bare-bone,  the cost and impact of the sick leaves and work accidents to the budget need to be evaluated?” Manuel Fernandes interim president MUHCEU-CSN