The world’s biggest trial of the four day working week is currently taking place here in the UK. Early reports suggest it’s going well.
The Covid-19 pandemic has already had a profound impact on working lives and a shift towards flexible working may see ideas like a four-day working week become commonplace.
The UK is running the biggest ever trial of the four-day working week, with over 3,000 employees taking part at 70 businesses. Companies taking part range from a brewery to a bank, game design company and a local fish and chip shop, with the trial capturing the imagination of overworked employees across the country.
What is a four-day working week?
While a four-day working week sounds pretty much like what it is – i.e. workers would generally work four days and get a three-day weekend – the key thing to note is this arrangement would mean no reduction in pay for workers.
The five-day week has been part of UK working life for more than a century so an alteration would be considered a radical shift. It is a change that has been suggested more regularly in recent years – Labourincluded plans for a 32-hour working week with no loss of pay in their 2019 General Election manifesto.
Does a four-day week compress the same amount of work into fewer days?
Not in its truest form, no. For example, workers in Belgium will be given the right to request a four-day week without a reduction in pay, but campaigners have said it’s not what they’re asking for.
Under the reform, employees will be allowed to work up to 9.5 hours a day – the equivalent of 9am to 6.30pm – meaning they will be able to squash a week of work into four longer days. This could be further extended to a 10-hour day through a workplace trade union agreement.
Flemish prime minister Alexander De Croo said the measures are being introduced “to give people and companies more freedom to arrange their work time.”
But campaigners have highlighted that allowing compressed hours is not in line with the goals of transitioning to a four-day week.
Responding to the Belgium government’s announcement, Joe Ryle, director of the 4 Day Week Campaign, welcomed more flexibility for workers to choose when they work, but stressed that “compressing a normal five day week into four-days is not the answer to tackling burnout, stress and overwork.”
“It’s essential that the move to a four-day week involves a reduction in working hours, with no loss of pay for employees,” he continued.
Why do campaigners want a four-day working week?
Campaigners say that a four-day working week brings a whole host of alleged benefits, tackling unemployment, health and wellbeing and even the climate crisis.
As a result of having to work less days, employees have a longer time to recuperate before returning to work and have more time to spend with families and friends, according to the 4 Day Week Campaign.
Top doctor John Ashton believes that a four-day week – without loss of pay – could “reduce sickness absence, improve morale which would improve the quality of what people are doing when they are working.”
“I think the four-day week will come over the next 10 years, and if the NHS doesn’t embrace it, the labour shortages will become even worse,” he told The Big Issue.
The UK is running the biggest ever trial of a four-day working week, how’s it going?
The trial of a four-day working week currently taking place in the UK has hit the half-way mark.
Nine in ten companies participating have reported that they would be likely to consider keeping the new way of working. Just under a third said that the transition to one less working day a week had been “extremely smooth”, and just under half reporting that business productivity had improved “at least slightly” if not “significantly”.
“We are learning that for many it is a fairly smooth transition and for some there are some understandable hurdles”, said Joe O’Connor, CEO of 4 Day Week Global. “Especially among those which have comparatively fixed or inflexible practices, systems, or cultures which date back well into the last century.
“While for most organisations the pilot prompts many pleasing discoveries and outcomes – a lot of businesses have more flexibility and nimbleness among their people and teams that leaders often know at the outset – there is friction for others, and this can be based on a variety of factors, many of which can be addressed or substantially improved in the pilot itself.”
The highly anticipated six-month pilot involves companies across the four British nations, and aims to shed some light on the impact a permanent three-day weekend can have on wellbeing, productivity, the environment and gender equality.
The trial is being organised by campaign group 4 Day Week Global in partnership with think tank Autonomy and the 4 Day Week UK Campaign, and will be evaluated by researchers at Cambridge University, Oxford University and Boston College in the USA.
Which other countries are trialling a four-day working week?
Alongside its UK-based trial, 4 Day Week Global is also orchestrating four-day working week pilots in the US and Canada, with 38 companies signed up so far.
Last year the Japanese government stated in its annual economic policy guideline that it encourages companies to offer an optional four-day working week to their employees, and it looks like many companies are taking the advice.
Major Japanese conglomerate Panasonic will give some employees the option of working a four-day working week up until March 2023 as it experiments with the new model of working.
“It is our responsibility to ensure a work-life balance to our diverse workers,” Panasonic President Yuki Kusumi told journalists in January.
Hitachi Ltd., Mizuho Financial Group Inc. and Fast Retailing Co, the operator of the clothing chain Uniqlo, is already implementing a four-day working week, The Japan Times has reported.
In a survey of 4,000 companies, Japan’s labour ministry found that 8.5 per cent of companies were giving employees more than two days a week off.
By Evie Breese and Liam Geraghty
Full article available here.
For more information on the 4-Day Work Week scheme click here.
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