The organisers of the world’s largest trial of the four-day working week in the United Kingdom have launched a drive to persuade more companies to try the idea, after receiving global coverage. The 4 Day Week Campaign said it aimed to persuade hundreds more companies to adopt the four-day week – crucially with no loss of pay for workers – after the six-month trial concluded this month. Autonomy, a thinktank supporting the campaign, said it would help companies in the transition during a national rollout programme.
Of the 61 companies that participated in the six-month trial, 56 have extended the four-day-week policy, including 18 that that have already made it permanent. The campaign aims to shift the norms of work culture from 40-hour, five-day weeks to 32-hour weeks. The trial gained global media coverage and commentary. Proponents of the four-day week argue that improvements in productivity across the economy should mean that employees can in many cases produce the same output in less time. Productivity growth has been key to the improvement in living standards over the course of decades.
However, the UK government has so far not shown any enthusiasm for the idea. Martin Callanan, a business minister, told parliament in September that the government had not assessed the costs and benefits of a four-day week. Another Conservative peer, Howard Leigh, has said the policy would have a “devastating effect” because it would be “difficult for colleagues to work effectively if some are just not available for 20% of the time”.
Yet some large companies have started to experiment with new approaches. Last week, Sainsbury’s, the UK’s second largest supermarket, said it would trial offering some employees the chance to work four days a week. Its trial does not involve a cut in total hours but rather allows workers to squeeze the same number of hours into four days.
