Civil servants in a second authorities division have referred to as for the introduction of a four-day working week.
Workers from housing secretary Angela Rayner’s division have began a petition calling on managers to permit workers to work a 32-hour week. They’ve joined fellow PCS union members on the Division for Surroundings, Meals and Rural Affairs to marketing campaign for the change.
Whereas the federal government stated it helps versatile working, it has stopped in need of backing a four-day working week internally.
This is what you must know concerning the four-day working week, and what it means for workers throughout the UK.
Is the UK going to have a four-day work week?
Not formally, the Division for Enterprise and Commerce has stated.
“We now have no plans to impose a four-day working week on employers or staff,” a spokesperson stated earlier this 12 months.
Nonetheless, a four-day week may come within the type of “compressed hours”, which The Telegraph reported could function in a brand new regulation which might legally oblige corporations to supply versatile working from day one, besides in jobs the place it’s “not moderately possible”.
The Division for Enterprise and Commerce stated in August it is going to announce particulars about its method throughout the subsequent 100 days.
What are compressed hours?
The federal government has denied it is going to pressure companies to permit workers to work a four-day week on the identical phrases.
Nonetheless, it stated it helps versatile working which might allow staff to “compress” their present hours into 4 days, which implies they might work longer shifts on these days.
Talking on LBC earlier this 12 months, Baroness Jacqui Smith, Labour’s Minister for Abilities, set out what this might appear to be: “The four-day week that I do know is on the entrance of numerous newspapers immediately, what we’re truly speaking about there may be the kind of versatile working that allows you to use compressed hours.
“So maybe as an alternative of working eight hours a day for 5 days, you’re employed 10 hours a day for 4 days.
“You’re nonetheless doing the identical quantity of labor, however maybe you’re doing it in a means that permits you, for instance, to wish much less childcare, to spend extra time with your loved ones, to do different issues, that encourages extra individuals into the office.”
Smith added: “We expect that versatile working is definitely good for productiveness.”
What are the advantages of a four-day work week?
Joe Ryle, director of the 4 Day Week Marketing campaign, stated permitting staff to compress their hours into 4 working days can be a welcome transfer.
However the group finally needs the federal government to go a step additional, with individuals employed on the identical pay for 4 days’ work (32 hours) as they at present get for 5 days (40 hours).
Ryle stated: “These proposals would solely enable staff to compress their working hours fairly than cut back them, which we’ve discovered is essential for improving work-life balance and also maintaining productivity.
“Compressing the identical quantity of hours into 4 days fairly than 5 will be an essential first step on the highway to a real four-day week, however lowering total working hours is essential.”
In addition to higher work-life steadiness, the 4 Day Week Campaign lists benefits to staff similar to assist with the price of dwelling (with much less childcare and commuting prices), extra relaxation and leisure time, and higher “life admin” capabilities (buying, cleansing, sorting funds).
For employers, it says “trials and real-world examples present that employers who transfer to a four-day week improve productiveness and cut back prices”, citing a 2021 Henley Business School study which estimated UK companies saved a mixed £104bn a 12 months.
Members of the Public and Business Providers union (PCS) within the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Native Authorities have began a petition calling on managers to permit workers to work 80% of their hours for 100% of their pay.
PCS members on the Division for Surroundings, Meals and Rural Affairs are already campaigning for a four-day week.
Alternatively, some enterprise teams have referred to as for warning over Labour’s plans for compressed hours.
Ben Willmott, head of public coverage for the CIPD, the skilled physique for human sources, stated: “Versatile working has to work for each the enterprise and staff if it’s to be sustainable, and this must be recognised in any modifications to regulation.”
The Conservatives have claimed companies are “petrified” about Labour’s plans, which the occasion stated would “make doing enterprise costlier”.
Which nations have a four-day work week?
In response to the 4 Day Week job listings website, no nation has absolutely adopted the four-day week, although many are experimenting with the thought.
Nonetheless, in 2022 Belgium introduced the right to a four-day week based on compressed hours, which is what the UK is now proposing.
What occurred within the four-day working week trial earlier this 12 months?
A lot of the UK corporations that took half on the earth’s largest ever four-day working week trial have made the coverage everlasting, analysis confirmed earlier this 12 months.
Of the 61 organisations that took half in a six-month UK pilot in 2022, 54 (89%) had been nonetheless working the coverage a 12 months later, and 31 (51%) made the change everlasting.
-
Learn extra from The Guardian here by which Paul Oliver, chief working officer at Residents Recommendation Gateshead, stated a four-day week had helped his staff and improved retention. “We wished to see a means to enhance workers circumstances so they might be higher rested and will give extra to work,” he added
‘A four-day week can work – if workers and employers can cope with the challenges’
Prof Miriam Marra, of Henley Enterprise College, who was a part of the 2021 examine talked about above, wrote final month: “We have to contemplate potential dangers on this method. For instance, is it a cause for employers to not supply ample or larger pay in the midst of a value of dwelling disaster? Or is it a cause for workers to work a number of jobs? Whereas the latter is a person selection, it shouldn’t be attributable to the previous.
“The four-day working week, like different flexible-work options, needs to be supplied by employers who need to recruit gifted and motivated staff, spend money on them, and supply them time and alternatives to upskill. All of this can assist workers to be extra productive of their jobs.”
