Some countries have introduced a law to limit working hours for employees How this law can be introduced Do you think it s a positive negative development

Work productivity leads unemployment increasing, and restricting on working length is a main choice for the government to settle this problem down, but the law is a double-edge sword. Both the advantage and disadvantage are obvious. In this essay, two sides will be covered.

For positive side, the law protects the legal right for everyone and punish the illegal overtime work which is very common in some developing countries. The enterprise profit from exploiting the workers and compelling them to uninterruptedly work over 10 even 12 hours a day with low overtime fee. Due to the law, fewer companies dare to break the regulation, otherwise they have to pay thousands of dollars as penalty. Moreover, it creases time for employees and families and hence relationships get close. Relatively, the Juvenile delinquents decrease as parents have time to cultivate them. The benefit is not only for individuals but also for the whole society.

However, meanwhile, the operating cost jumps up sharply and even worse, some enterprises have to shut down the factories in order to deal with huge debt. Take GM, general motor company in US, as an example. After the breakdown of negotiation with labor union who claim to reduce the work hour from 8 hours to 6 hours otherwise increase the salary, GM shuts down all the factories located in Detroit and transforms the majority of auto part production to China or India as they cannot afford the high cost and falls into finance crisis. As this transaction, Detroit is no longer the city with past prosperity in lieu of high criminal rate and unemployment rate.

Sometimes, limiting work hours is Pandora box, the consequences are both positive and negative. The purpose of the law is to protect the legal right, but it also makes some obstacles to hinder the normal development by abusing. The results depends on the governments how to balance the interest from both sides of employment.