The Labour government admitted on Friday that it is working on the idea, which was advanced by the newspaper Daily Telegraphthat British workers can demand from their employers, when circumstances permit, a compressed working week of four days. The hours worked, however, would remain the same (forty). The new plans do not contemplate the possibility of reducing the total time by law.
“We think flexible working hours are good for productivity,” Jobs Secretary Jacqui Smith told LBC radio. “Perhaps instead of working eight hours a day for five days you could work ten hours a day for four. It would be the same amount of work, but in a way that allows you to spend less on childcare or more time with your family. It would attract more people into the workforce and help our core objective of growth.”
Smith has acknowledged that the possibility of a compressed week would not be within the reach of all workers. Teachers, for example, who must comply with a school schedule, would be excluded from an alternative that, in any case, would never be forced on companies. “We have no intention of forcing anyone to comply with the compressed work week. Any attempt to improve employment legislation will also be consulted with employers,” said a British government spokesman.
Keir Starmer toned down the grandiloquence of his election proposals as he saw the possibility of becoming Prime Minister of the United Kingdom growing closer. What began as the New Deal for Working People (New Deal for the Working Class), which copied the revolutionary and transformative resonance of the “new deal” of American President Roosevelt, ended up being baptized as the Make Work Pay Plan (Plan to Make Working Profitable), much more modest in its wording, so as not to scare away business owners.
In any case, the proposals included in this plan, which the Government has committed to taking to Parliament within the first 100 days of its mandate (which began on 5 July), represent a considerable improvement for the rights of British workers, if they are approved.
The new legislation would put an end to the abuse of work contracts, which many companies use fraudulently to avoid paying holidays, sick leave or severance pay. The promised changes also include the so-called right to disconnect for workers, which would penalise companies that try to contact employees via email or mobile messages outside of working hours.
In addition to innovative proposals such as the latter, the Labour plan would also incorporate some provisions that are common in other European countries, but not so much in a market as liberalised as the British one. For example, the possibility of all workers being paid during sick leave or having increased protection against unfair dismissal.
The four-day workweek is an idea that is being discussed in Western countries. Just over a year ago, the United Kingdom launched a pilot programme on the shortened workweek, in which just over fifty companies participated. Of the 61 companies that launched the experiment, 58 firms decided to extend this work formula. In addition, 18 of them decided to make it permanent. These companies have managed to reduce the number of hours worked, increase the well-being of their employees and maintain and even increase employee productivity.
Similar experiments have been put into practice in Iceland, Portugal and Belgium, where this option is already available to workers, although it does not involve a reduction in hours but rather a concentration of them.
The Portuguese pilot project affected a thousand employees and revealed that the new work arrangement is beneficial for workers. More than nine out of ten of the companies that participated in the trial considered that the changes observed were positive. For the staff, the most notable thing was the improvements they perceived in their mental health.
In Spain, there has also been an attempt to carry out a similar experiment. More than a year ago, the Ministry of Industry launched a project to provide aid to industrial companies that would reduce their working day to four. It set aside 50 million to help these companies, but the trial has been delayed for months.
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