Labour MPs call for four-day week as part of workers’ rights package
Twelve Labour MPs and one Green MP are trying to get the Government to consider how to transition parts of the economy to a four-day week.
More than a dozen MPs have called for a four-day working week to be considered by ministers as part of a new set of workers rights rules.
The MPs, 12 of whom are Labour and one of whom is from the Green Party, want the Government to set up a body to look into bringing in a four-day week across the economy.
A four-day working week with no loss of pay is becoming more popular in the UK.
More than 200 companies in January confirmed they had made the switch to the shortened work pattern permanently.
The majority of the companies said their employees work 32 hours a week or less over the course of a week.
Proponents of the new working pattern say people are happier and less likely to suffer from burnout when they work fewer days.
Peter Dowd, the Labour MP who put forward the amendment, said that with things like artificial intelligence enabling people to work more efficiently, the benefits “must be passed back to workers”.
“A four-day, 32-hour working week is the future of work and I urge my party to back this amendment so we can begin a much wider transition.”
Maya Ellis, Labour MP for Ribble Valley, said: “Data shows that working four days leads to greater productivity than five.
“That means in public organisations for example, that we can get through a higher volume of tasks, creating the increase in capacity we so desperately need to see in our public services.”
The amendment points to the growing popularity for less onerous working patterns but comes at a time when large corporations are forcing their employees to return to the office full-time.
US investment bank JP Morgan and tech giant Amazon have demanded staff come back to the office every day despite having allowed hybrid working patterns for the last five years since the Covid-19 pandemic.
And former Asda and Marks & Spencer chief executive Lord Stuart Rose claimed earlier in January that remote working does not amount to “proper work”.
The 4 Day Week Foundation’s campaign, by contrast, aims to promote people’s wellbeing over hours spent at work.
Joe Ryle, campaign director of the 4 Day Week Foundation, said: “Compressing the same amount of hours into four days rather than five is not the same thing as a true four-day working week.
“What is missing from the Bill is a commitment to explore a genuinely shorter working week which we know workers desperately want.
“As hundreds of British companies and one local council have already shown, a four-day week with no loss of pay can be a win-win for both workers and employers.”
A spokesman for 10 Downing Street said the Government had no plans to change its workers’ rights package, adding: “In general terms, it is not Government policy to support a general move to a four-day week for five days’ worth of pay.”
