U.K. workers are set to win new rights to work four days a week under government plans to improve flexibility, but workers will still face a battle to get shorter weeks past their bosses.
Under a new flexible working bill, U.K. workers could legally demand the opportunity to compress their weekly working hours into four days. That would result in employees working four 10-hour days compared with the default of five eight-hour days.
This is different from the much-campaigned-for four-day week, where workers reduce their hours by 20% without a pay cut while maintaining their previous levels of productivity.
Under the proposed bill, employers can refuse compressed hours to staff only if they can prove it is “not reasonably feasible.”
Indeed, compressed hours will not be feasible for a sizable share of the population, including key workers like teachers. However, the Labour government is harking up the benefits for those who can fulfill their obligations in four days instead of five.
“We think that flexible working is actually good for productivity,” Baroness Smith of Malvern, the minister for skills, told LBC. “What we’re talking about there is the type of flexible working that enables you to use compressed hours, so perhaps instead of working eight hours a day for five days, you work 10 hours a day for four days.
“So you’re still doing the same amount of work, but perhaps you’re doing it in a way that enables you, for example, to need less childcare, to spend more time with your family, to do other things. That encourages more people into the workplace, which is an enormous part of that growth mission that you’ve already talked about.”
The compressed week proposal is part of a swath of new initiatives to give U.K. workers more flexible working arrangements and bring the country closer in line with other European nations.
The government is reportedly planning to introduce new “right to switch off” legislation that could see employers fined if they frequently send their employees out-of-hours communications.
However, as with that proposal, naysayers including the opposition Conservative Party have warned it could affect employers’ flexibility and wider productivity.
“Despite warning after warning from industry, Angela Rayner is pressing ahead with her French-style union laws that will make doing business more expensive in the U.K.,” Kevin Hollinrake, the Tory shadow business secretary, told the Telegraph.
“Labour must listen to businesses who are petrified about day one employment rights and bringing in the four-day week through the back door. It will be businesses and consumers who pay and growth that suffers if they don’t listen.”
Compression headaches
Proponents of compressed hours say that in practice it allows workers to do the same amount of work in four days that they would in five, at least maintaining previous productivity levels.
It also gives workers more time to spend with their family and friends and spend less on childcare.
However, private sector trials of compressed hours have encountered hiccups.
In July, supermarket chain Asda said it was scrapping its compressed four-day workweek trial after staff were left “physically exhausted” by trying to cram 44 hours of work into four days.
The 11-hour shift patterns also meant staff struggled with accessing public transport to and from work and became unable to manage childcare responsibilities like school pickups and drop-offs.
U.K. insurance company Domestic & General ran into problems when it trialed compressed hours for its office workers. While not physically exhausted like Asda’s workers, D&G employees were left with their own fatigue-related issues before the trial was scrapped.
“Half the team absolutely loved it, half of the team didn’t like it at all—it makes for a longer day, it’s a bit more intense,” Matthew Crummack, chief executive of D&G, told the Telegraph. “For them, spreading the work across five was easier to manage psychologically.”
Instead, there is a more positive consensus around the 100:80:100 model, where employees receive 100% of their original pay while working 80% of their previous hours and delivering 100% of their previous productivity levels.
Most U.K. companies that took part in the world’s largest four-day week trial permanently rolled out the setup a year after it was introduced, with most workers reporting a decrease in burnout and many companies enjoying increased revenues.
Mark Mullen, the CEO of U.K. digital bank Atom, introduced a four-day workweek in 2021. He told the Financial Times that the model, which requires employees to be in the office every day, was easier than implementing a hybrid model over five days.
