Two new surveys have found that there is growing support amongst workers for a shift towards a four-day working week
Four-Day Working Week
As we highlighted in a previous article, a 6 month trial of the four-day working week delivered some positive results for those participating in it.
Trial
During the 6 month trial, employees of those organisations which participated worked a four-day working week without the loss of any pay. The approach was based upon what is known as the 100:80:100 model, in which employers pay their employees their full pay (i.e. 100%) despite employees only working 80% of the normal working week (i.e. a four-day working week, instead of 5). In exchange, the employee looks to deliver 100% productivity (i.e. produce what they had been doing in 5 days, in 4 days).
The objectives behind the trial were to determine whether the four-day working week delivers an increase in productivity, as well as improvements in health, wellbeing, work life balance, and staff retention.
Second Trial
A second 6 month four-day working week trial is due to start in November 2024.
Debate
Nevertheless, the idea of a four-day working week is a controversial one, with the previous Government very much opposed to its roll out into the public sector, and with proponents and critics arguing over its merits.
We set out the advantages and disadvantages for employers of the four-day working week in a recent article.
New Legislation
The right of employees to request flexible working, including going onto a four-day working week, has been a day one right since the 6th April 2024. Nevertheless, employers have the right to reject such requests on a number of grounds, including detrimental impact upon the quality / performance of work, higher business costs, making it more difficult to meet customer demand, difficulties in reorganising work among existing staff or in hiring additional staff, lack of work, and incompatibility with a planned restructure.
Nevertheless, the new Labour Government is planning to strengthen employees rights further via its Employment Rights Bill, by making flexible working the “default” from day one for employees except where it is not “reasonably feasible”. In practice, however, how this differs from what the law already is at the moment is somewhat unclear other than it is likely under the new legislation to become more difficult for employers to reject flexible working requests.
Workers In Favour
Two new surveys indicate that workers are in favour of a move towards a four-day working week.
New research from Owl Labs, the first of the two new surveys, has found that 73% of workers would be prepared to accept a pay cut in return for being moved onto a four-day working week. This is up 8% from 65% in 2023.
The research also found that 47% of workers would leave their present job should they lose their existing flexible working rights, whilst having a supportive boss (89%) was valued almost as highly as salary level (90%). Moreover, the survey found that most employers (53%) were of the view that a four-day working week enhanced productivity. Just 20% believed that it made their staff less productive
Furthermore, a poll commissioned by the Autonomy Institute and conducted by Survation found that 60% of the respondents to the survey were in favour of a shift to a four-day working week by 2030, with just 13% opposed to the idea.
Reaction
Commenting upoon the findings, the director of research at The Autonomy Institute, Will Stronge, stated: "Our polling shows that if Keir Starmer were to move ahead with policies to enable the country to transition to a four-day working week, he would have the support of vast swathes of the UK population....Labour’s New Deal for Working People is a good start, but what is absent is a serious plan around working time reduction: if the priority is health, decent working conditions, and business innovation, this needs to be part of the programme."
