advertisement


4 day working week with no loss of pay

Brian

Brian

Eating fat, staying slim
Peter Dowd MP calls for four-day working week without pay cut

In the UK, more than 70 companies and 3,300 workers are currently taking part in the world's biggest four-day week pilot, with no accompanying loss of pay.

At the halfway point, 86% of the companies taking part said they were likely to consider retaining the policy after the trial.

In September, South Cambridgeshire District Council became the first UK local authority to move ahead with a four-day week pilot, again with no pay cut.
Click to expand...

The more this is taken up, the better, but there will be resistance and denial of evidence of the positive benefits. There was a time some people resisted stopping child labour.

Source: BBC
 
Certainly wouldn't work for us in food production; it's hard enough to get decent staff already, half a week each would double our labour force and halve their income.
 
dweezil said:
Certainly wouldn't work for us in food production; it's hard enough to get decent staff already, half a week each would double our labour force and halve their income.
Click to expand...
I am sure you didn't mean to write it this way but it kinda reads like 'we need people to work for SFA eight days a week'.
 
Brian said:
Peter Dowd MP calls for four-day working week without pay cut



The more this is taken up, the better, but there will be resistance and denial of evidence of the positive benefits. Probably would the type sorry to see the end of child labour.

Source: BBC
Click to expand...

I'd love that. The industry I work in does not appear to value the health, safety and welfare of it's staff though.

So I'm not sure this is anything other than fantasy to me personally.
 
gintonic said:
are the hours the same? I've been pondering compressed hours for 4 days a week.
Click to expand...

I don’t think that’s what is being suggested. It’s less hours for the same money. In the case of the council, 30 hours work for a full weeks pay. In other words, a 25% pay rise. Would never work in the private sector of course, where many would have worked 30 hours by Wednesday afternoon.
 
dweezil said:
Certainly wouldn't work for us in food production; it's hard enough to get decent staff already, half a week each would double our labour force and halve their income.
Click to expand...
Sure, it won't be viable everywhere, but there does seem to be evidence of improved productivity for working 4 days rather than 5.
 
Fewer hours for less money? Amid an economic debacle and political fiasco ? Why not? Surely can't get worse.
 
Mike Reed said:
Fewer hours for less money? Amid an economic debacle and political fiasco ? Why not? Surely can't get worse.
Click to expand...

Quite. Any organisation who says they can do a full weeks work in 30 hours so should receive a full weeks pay isn’t being managed correctly. I’d suggest they are 25% over staffed.
 
In many places Friday is already a short day. May work for somebody, cannot see it as mass movement as everybody is connected to everybody.
 
We've been looking at this for our staff, as it helps staff retention, and generally improves people's lifestyles. It's a tricky balance, as many job descriptions are such that it can't be done easily (e.g. shipping dept, etc). But if there are clear and agreed targets for output, then why not see if people can do it in a shorter time, and give 'em a day off to compensate?
 
Nero said:
We've been looking at this for our staff, as it helps staff retention, and generally improves people's lifestyles. It's a tricky balance, as many job descriptions are such that it can't be done easily (e.g. shipping dept, etc). But if there are clear and agreed targets for output, then why not see if people can do it in a shorter time, and give 'em a day off to compensate?
Click to expand...

Yes, for those who have specific targets, objectives and KPI’s, a different model can work, such as compressed hours which many already have in place. For many roles and organisations though, it’s just a non starter. The suggestion here is the job can be performed in fewer hours for the same pay, which implies inefficiency.
 
It’s not that black and white, in the video the guy says that productivity has improved with less sickness and absenteism. Turnover jumped from 550 mill to 770 mill. He said it was a sea change in the staff’s attitude that the 4 day week introduced.
Of course, in many sectors it’s simply not possible without employing more staff but it is interesting.
 
sq225917 said:
The other way of looking at it is that the more hours you work the less efficient you become.
Click to expand...

Excellent, I’ll employ 2 people for 2 days a week each. Might get 6 days productivity out of them for 4 days pay. Plenty who’d like the flexibility to do that. Totally dependant on the type of job of course.
 
sq225917 said:
The other way of looking at it is that the more hours you work the less efficient you become.
Click to expand...

Of course. The UK culture of presenteeism simply leads to people adjusting their working days appropriately wherever possible. Anyone who's ever worked in an office knows that. We just need to get out of the mindset of treating employees like animals (actually animals shouldn't be treated like animals either).
 
Problem I see with this is that it won't benefit those who could probably do with it the most- low paid service industry workers. Places that never shut aren't suddenly going to double the amount of employees/wage bill to cover all the extra shifts. Handy if your a 9-5 office bod those I s'pose.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top