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Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Do you support the four-day week? Yahoo readers have their say
Yahoo UK's poll of the week lets you vote and indicate your strength of feeling on one of the week's hot topics. After the poll closes, we'll publish and analyse the results each Friday, giving readers the chance to see how polarising a topic has become and if their view chimes with other Yahoo UK readers. With Easter behind us and the May bank holidays on the horizon, many people may be getting used to the four-day week. But should it be permanent? The idea has been floated for years on the fringe of politics, as people argued that technological advancements mean people need to work less. Work-related burnout is on the rise across the world, to the extent where the World Health Organisation has described it as an occupational phenomenon "resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed". Many believe a four-day working week could be the answer to this problem, with a 2022 trial of 61 companies in the UK finding employee burnout decreased by 71%, while productivity remained stable or improved. During a debate in Parliament last month on workers' rights, Labour MP Peter Dowd said the four-day week was "inevitable." He said: "History shows us that changes in patterns of work, working arrangements, the nature of work, and other associated issues, AI, will eventually lead to a four-day week over a period of time." "So let's embrace the change, let's plan for the change." The idea also has plenty of critics who argue the UK needs to be more productive and question if this can be achieved if people work eight hours less a week. Earlier in April, shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith criticised the Lib Dems councillors who supported cutting the working week, saying "they've supported four-day weeks which have damaged the interests of local residents." In a poll earlier this week, Yahoo News UK asked readers Do you support the idea of a four-day working week? The results were reasonably split, with a slight majority of 53% saying they did, with 41% saying they did not and 6% being undecided. The poll attracted some passionate comments from people who were both for and against the idea. Tracy S, from Wiltshire, said: "A four-day week would give more time for those with children and other caring commitments. "It would also give the employee time to physically and mentally relax instead of the rush over two days to fit all the chores of shopping, cleaning, family time, gardening, etc, which becomes exhausting. "We need to move away from thinking that working five days a week is the only way to productivity. "We are a nation of exhausted and stressed workers, four days may produce better productivity and happier workers." Sarah A, from London, agreed, she said: "An extra day to sort out other parts of my life - chores, wellbeing, catching up with family and friends - would certainly let me focus on work better. "I can be more productive over four days if I'm not weighed down by thoughts of everything else on my plate." But Jen M, from Stirling, said a four-day week was not needed, saying: "I do not believe in a 4 day week nor working from home now that COVID is no longer a threat." Romy B, from Sussex, was also against the idea, adding: "Ridiculous. We need more productivity, not less. Companies cannot function effectively on four days, for global trade, it would be disastrous. Sadly, the country's in a mess with this government." Read more of Yahoo UK's Poll of the Week articles
The Independent
11-03-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Inevitability of four-day week should be embraced, Labour MP says
The 'inevitable' transition to a four-day working week should be embraced, a Labour MP has said, as he urged the Government 'not to make an enemy of progress'. Peter Dowd said a four-day week could lead to more productivity, with employees less likely to experience burnout. Speaking during the Employment Rights Bill report stage, the MP for Bootle accepted it would be 'challenging' but said the discussion must be had, with the move to a five-day week occurring over a century ago. In the Commons, Mr Dowd said: ' Research from Barclays showed working hours in the UK have fallen 5% on average in the past four decades, with British workers now working 27% more hours than their German counterpart. 'Meanwhile, France, Italy, Spain, enjoyed a 10% decline in working hours. Yet despite people in this country working longer hours than our competitors or partners, as a nation we're one of the least productive in the G7, and we've got to do something about that.' He added: '71% in that study reported reduced levels of burn-out, 54% said it was easier to balance household responsibilities, 6% found an increased ability to combine paid-work with care responsibilities, 62% reported it was easier to combine work with social life, and so on, and so on, and so on. 'So what it seeks to do is to put the issue, as I said, on the agenda, because I believe it is inevitable. 'History shows us that changes in patterns of work, working arrangements, the nature of work, and other associated issues, AI (artificial intelligence), will eventually lead to a four-day week over a period of time. 'So let's embrace the change, let's plan for the change. 'If we do want to get the country back to work, if we do want to get the country working productively, if we do want to get many millions of people without work back into work, well let's do it as progressively as we possibly can. 'Finally, if lengthening the time we're asking people to work by an extra year, two years, three years maybe in the future, the least we can do, if we're asking them to work a longer life, is to ask them to have a shorter week – what's wrong with that? 'And is that really too much to ask? I don't think so, and many more employers and employees take the same view. So let's not make an enemy of progress, why don't we just embrace it?' Mr Dowd put forward an amendment to the Bill to set up a Working Time Council which would look at moving towards a four-day week. He said the Council would compose of businesses, trade unions, government departments and experts on the subject. These would advise the Secretary of State on how a transition would impact employers and employees and 'how businesses, public bodies and other organisations should approach such a transition', he said. Mr Dowd added: 'My aim in introducing this new clause is to try and get the debate about the four-day week off the blocks. I accept that the notion is a challenging one but it's not a reason to put off the debate, the discussion has to be had. 'It's over a hundred years since the introduction of a five-day week in different industries.'
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Inevitability of four-day week should be embraced, Labour MP says
The 'inevitable' transition to a four-day working week should be embraced, a Labour MP has said, as he urged the Government 'not to make an enemy of progress'. Peter Dowd said a four-day week could lead to more productivity, with employees less likely to experience burnout. Speaking during the Employment Rights Bill report stage, the MP for Bootle accepted it would be 'challenging' but said the discussion must be had, with the move to a five-day week occurring over a century ago. In the Commons, Mr Dowd said: 'Research from Barclays showed working hours in the UK have fallen 5% on average in the past four decades, with British workers now working 27% more hours than their German counterpart. 'Meanwhile, France, Italy, Spain, enjoyed a 10% decline in working hours. Yet despite people in this country working longer hours than our competitors or partners, as a nation we're one of the least productive in the G7, and we've got to do something about that.' He added: '71% in that study reported reduced levels of burn-out, 54% said it was easier to balance household responsibilities, 6% found an increased ability to combine paid-work with care responsibilities, 62% reported it was easier to combine work with social life, and so on, and so on, and so on. 'So what it seeks to do is to put the issue, as I said, on the agenda, because I believe it is inevitable. 'History shows us that changes in patterns of work, working arrangements, the nature of work, and other associated issues, AI (artificial intelligence), will eventually lead to a four-day week over a period of time. 'So let's embrace the change, let's plan for the change. 'If we do want to get the country back to work, if we do want to get the country working productively, if we do want to get many millions of people without work back into work, well let's do it as progressively as we possibly can. 'Finally, if lengthening the time we're asking people to work by an extra year, two years, three years maybe in the future, the least we can do, if we're asking them to work a longer life, is to ask them to have a shorter week – what's wrong with that? 'And is that really too much to ask? I don't think so, and many more employers and employees take the same view. So let's not make an enemy of progress, why don't we just embrace it?' Mr Dowd put forward an amendment to the Bill to set up a Working Time Council which would look at moving towards a four-day week. He said the Council would compose of businesses, trade unions, government departments and experts on the subject. These would advise the Secretary of State on how a transition would impact employers and employees and 'how businesses, public bodies and other organisations should approach such a transition', he said. Mr Dowd added: 'My aim in introducing this new clause is to try and get the debate about the four-day week off the blocks. I accept that the notion is a challenging one but it's not a reason to put off the debate, the discussion has to be had. 'It's over a hundred years since the introduction of a five-day week in different industries.'
The Independent
12-02-2025
- Business
- The Independent
To all those Labour MPs calling for a four-day week – whatever happened to growth?
If a four-day week is such a good idea, it will happen, because employers will adopt it. Advocates claim that it makes workers more productive, but in that case why does it need an act of parliament to promote it? The 12 Labour MPs (and one Green) who propose an amendment to the Employment Rights Bill are engaged in gesture politics, it would seem. It is a well-meaning gesture, aiming to improve working life for employees, but it is a mistaken one. Some of the arguments for a four-day week are confused. Peter Dowd, the Labour MP who drafted the amendment, says it is needed because artificial intelligence will reduce employment – the latest version of the fear that robots will take our jobs that has haunted people since the Industrial Revolution. Most recently, this kind of millenarianism took the form of advocating a universal basic income because automation would replace human work – yet recent decades have seen hardly any change in average weekly hours worked. The amendment's sponsors would be better off sticking to the argument that a four-day week would make us better off, but unless they genuinely believe that it is a magic productivity -enhancer that 99 per cent of Britain's employers have somehow overlooked, they look as if they are arguing that a shorter hours are more important than economic growth. Unless the case for a four-day week is overwhelming, Labour MPs ought to be careful about contradicting their party's supposedly single-minded focus on growth. And the case is far from overwhelming. The 4 Day Week Foundation, a pressure group, says that 200 companies across the UK representing 5,000 workers have permanently reduced workers' hours to 32 or less per week. But that is a tiny fraction of the economy, and the MPs who are pushing the amendment tend to make vague claims for the policy. A reduced working week 'can have positive benefits for the workplace and for the wellbeing of workers', says Bell Ribeiro-Addy, one of the Labour sponsors. But 'can' is not good enough. She needs evidence that workers are more productive – and that the increase in productivity more than pays for the reduction in hours. It was telling that Maya Ellis, another Labour MP supporting the amendment, gives the example of 'public organisations', claiming that a four-day week would result in an 'increase in capacity we so desperately need to see in our public services'. Given that four-day weeks are so rare in the private sector, Ellis and Ribeiro-Addy risk sounding as if they are advocating a cushy number for people employed by the taxpayer. It does not help that the best-known example of a four-day week is the deal secured by Aslef, the train drivers' union, in what is in effect a public-sector industry. The union is now demanding the same for London tube drivers, in what is definitely the public sector. That is why I thought it was unwise for Angela Rayner, the minister responsible for the Employment Rights Bill, to reverse the Conservative government's objection to South Cambridgeshire district council moving to a four-day week. Of course, it is up to local councils to manage their employees as they see fit, subject to their accountability to local voters, but there is a danger that the scheme will be seen as a perk for public-sector workers only. I think Rayner is political enough to see that danger, and so there is no chance that the amendment to her Employment Rights Bill will pass. But it still leaves her promoting a bill that will add significantly to burdens on employers. The government's own impact assessment says that the additional costs of what the prime minister today boasted was the 'biggest upgrade in workers' rights in a generation' would be in the 'low billions per year'. We should be grateful that Rayner is unlikely to pursue some of the wilder dreams of labour market utopians, but she should look again at her Employment Rights Bill, which is already at odds with her government's claim to put growth first.
The Independent
11-02-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Labour MPs call for the government to support a four-day working week
More than a dozen MPs are pushing for the government to include consideration for a four-day working week as part of a new set of workers rights rules. The MPs, 12 Labour and one Green, have called for the Government to set up a body to look into bringing in a four-day week across the economy. The group is calling for an amendment to the Employment Rights Bill, which proposes new workers rights such as flexible working and a ban on zero-hours contracts. 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.' 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. The amendment points to the growing popularity of 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.'
