But last year the government relented and announced that starting in September 2004 civil servants could gradually change to a five-day workweek. About three-quarters have already switched, according to the Ministry of Manpower.

Why the change of heart?

"To become more pro-family," said Halimah Yacob, a member of Parliament and the assistant secretary general of the National Trades Union Congress, Singapore's trade union confederation. "Hopefully when people have more time, they are more relaxed and there will be more procreation."

Like many other wealthy countries, Singapore is struggling with a rock-bottom birthrate - an average of about 1.25 children for every woman and thus well below the level of 2.1 that would allow the country to replace its current population.

The realization here, according Halimah and others, is that the country's desire to increase its birthrate cannot be separated from its workplace policies.

And the broader philosophy seems to be this: There's little point in working yourself to the bone for the sake of international competitiveness if it means in the long term that the country shrinks to near irrelevance.

Low birthrates are an especially difficult challenge for small countries because they have no hinterland to fall back on. This applies as much to Slovenia, which has two million people, as it does Singapore, with a population of three million.

No one here thinks that switching to a five-day workweek will alone spur Singapore's civil servants to leave their desks and channel their energies toward procreation.

"You cannot decree that people should have babies," Halimah said.

Instead, Halimah and others hope that a package of workplace-related initiatives announced by the government last year will create a better environment for employees - not just civil servants - to have children.

As part of the measures announced last year, paid maternity leave was increased to 12 weeks from 8 weeks and parents were given two paid "child-care leave" days annually if they have children under 7 years old.

The government also reduced its levy on hiring foreign maids and increased the so-called baby bonus given to parents, which now begins at S$3000, or about $1800, for a first child and climbs to $18,000 for the fourth child.

Yet of all these measures, changing to a five-day work was the most difficult psychological barrier, even though about 40 percent of employees at private companies in the service sector in Singapore already worked a five-day week.

The government's main fear was that the economy could suffer if businesses were no longer able to do things like apply for licenses on Saturdays. South Korea had similar concerns two years ago during a debate on the five-day week, but Seoul ultimately decided to abolish work on Saturdays, which had been mandatory for many workers.

In Singapore, civil servants make up about 5 percent of a work force of 2.2 million people. A spokesman for the Ministry of Manpower said strict conditions had been placed on the changeover to a five-day week.

"Public agencies must ensure that the level of service delivery to the public must not fall," he said in an e-mailed response to questions. "The total number of working hours in a week must also remain at 42."

Not everyone is convinced that the pro-baby policies will work.

"It's quite unlikely in this day and age that you can suddenly order women to have babies," said Vivian Wee, the associate director of the Southeast Asia Research Center at the City University of Hong Kong.

Wee says Singapore should focus more on enhancing its immigration policies because that is a much faster way to increase population and head off future labor shortages.

"It will take 20 years for the babies born now to enter the labor force," Wee said. "What do you do in the meantime?"

                                                      Home