Finland's new Prime Minister would like to see a flexible working schedule that could involve a four-day week and six-hour days discussed.
Sanna Marin, the youngest female head of government in the world, believes efforts to improve the work-life balance of ordinary people need to continue and raised the prospect of the dramatic change to hours when she was previously the transport minister.
Ms Marin tweeted last August that working time had been reduced of the past 100 years, and that people's income and well-being had improved.
Hailing a reduction to an eight-hour working day as being a goal her Social Democratic Party had achieved, she said further changes should be explored.
She said: "Shorter working hours can and should be discussed. A 4-day week or a 6-hour day with a decent wage may be a utopia today, but may be true in the future."
Currently the typical working week in Finland is eight hours a day, five days a week.
The 34-year-old heads a five party centre-left coalition - all led by women - however the Finnish Government was quick to distance itself from the concept after Ms Marin's comments re-surfaced.
It tweeted: "In the Finnish Government´s program there is no mention about 4-day week. Issue is not on the Finnish Government’s agenda. PM @marinsanna envisioned [the] idea briefly in a panel discussion last August while she was the Minister of Transport, and there hasn’t been any recent activity."
Since 1996 Finnish workers have had the right to start or finish work three hours earlier or later.
In 2015, Sweden trialled six hour working days and found that employees were happier, wealthier and more productive.
- This story has been amended following the Finnish Government's statement. The headline originally said the country was going to introduce the cut in hours
