Feb 21 (Reuters) - British companies involved in the world's largest trial of a four-day working week have mostly decided to retain it in what campaigners hailed on Tuesday as a breakthrough for a better work-life balance.

That may still be far from the leisurely 15-hour working week British economist John Maynard Keynes in 1930 predicted could be the fruit of mass automation - and surveys show the vast majority of firms have no plans for going the same route.

Yet the past two years have seen many such experiments as the COVID-19 pandemic, rising energy bills and labour shortages have prompted employers to re-examine the work week for reasons ranging from employee well-being to cost-savings.

Whether they will have the longevity of France's landmark 35-hour working week bill, enshrined into law in 2000, remains to be seen. And they stand in contrast to the gruelling hours and precarious working conditions which remain the lot of many millions of workers around the world.

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The following are examples of some of the schemes:

BRITAIN - Employees at 61 companies worked an average of 34 hours across four days between June-December 2022, while earning their existing salary. Of those, 56 companies, or 92%, opted to continue like that, 18 of them permanently. A number of participants said job retention and recruitment had improved during the trial.

SPAIN - The left-wing government launched a pilot project in December to help small and medium-sized industrial companies...

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