LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas agencies have had the ability to offer employees shorter work weeks for more than thirty years, but steep gas prices have prompted the state to take another look at ways to cut down on workers' time behind the wheel consuming fuel and polluting the air.Lawmakers said Tuesday they'll study whether the state needs to revise its policies and find ways to allow more workers to cut down on their transportation costs by cutting the work week to four ten-hour days instead of five eight-hour days. The move follows several other states changing their workweeks in response to record fuel costs.
The Unions will demand time-and-a-half for the two extra hours a day.
'There's only so much that a person who is working hard every day for the state of Arkansas who is making maybe $8 to $10 an hour can bear paying $4 a gallon for gas,' said Sen. Tracy Steele, who proposed the study approved by the House and Senate committees on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs.