UK Begins 4-day Working Week Trial

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More than 3,000 workers across 70 companies in the UK are starting a four-day week today, on full pay, in the world’s biggest pilot scheme, as the nation struggles with more job vacancies than staff available.

The programme is being coordinated by campaign group 4 Day Week Global, think tank Autonomy and academics at Oxford, Cambridge and Boston College in the US.

There are a range of businesses and charities taking part, including the Royal Society of Biology, hipster London brewery Pressure Drop, Southampton computer game developer Yo Telecom, a Manchester medical devices firm, and a fish and chip shop in Norfolk. 

Staff will be given 100 percent pay for 80 percent of their time — but they have made a commitment to produce 100 percent of their usual output.

However some critics say the concept would be impossible in customer facing jobs, or 24/7 operations including where overtime payments would present an extra cost to employers or the taxpayer.

A trial of the four-day working week in France found workers were putting in the same amount of hours even with a day fewer and companies were having to pay them for their extra time.

Some economists have argued that working fewer hours would decrease the standard of living and the leader of one of Spain’s main business associations has previously described it as “madness”. 

It comes as airlines struggle to recruit enough staff to manage the spring travel demand and upcoming summer holiday pressures. 

The transport industry has been struggling with a shortage of lorry drivers that has been ongoing since last year — impacting the supply chain. 

And industry experts have warned that shoppers could struggle to get their hands on their favourite fruit and vegetables this summer due to a shortage of seasonal crop pickers.

This is also coming at a time the UK is facing a labour shortage, with more vacancies than workers available to fill them. This has led to suggestions that potential airport staff recruits are unwilling to accept lower wages and more demanding roles.

Across various industries, employers are struggling to attract and retain staff, with employees looking for other non-paid benefits, such as working from home, flexible hours, or a four-day week. 

The work from home debate has largely been focused on civil servants, after the Government launched a push to get employees back into the offices as regularly as possible. 

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said that cutting down on remote working would boost productivity and revive the UK’s town and city centres.

But unions say they will “resist indiscriminate demands from the Government for civil servants’ return to office-based working”, arguing that staff can work efficiently from home and that “work is no longer a place, but what is done”.

Figures revealed last month show the UK now tops the table of nations where workers would rather quit or find a new job than return to the office five days a week.  

The four-day week has been supported by the SNP, which hopes to explore “non-pay” benefits of a reduced working week.

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has also backed the idea, having been announced by then shadow chancellor John McDonnell at Labour Party conference in September 2019.

The team of researchers involved in the new pilot will study each company and assess the impact on staff, including stress and burnout, job and life satisfaction, health, sleep, energy use, travel.

They will also look gender equality, with the four-day week thought to benefit women, who make up a higher proportion of part-time and flexible-hours staff. 

Major companies that have tried out a four-day week but are not part of the trial include Unilever, Panasonic and Atom Bank —which was the biggest employer to make the change in November last year.

Similar experiments are due to be held in the USA, Canada, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, while Government-backed trials are starting in Spain and Scotland this week.   

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