group of business figures, trade union leaders, and left-wing politicians from across the world are calling for shorter workers’ hours to be introduced in response to the covid pandemic while maintaining full-time pay.
The group detailed its arguments in a letter sent to leaders of the UK, US, Germany, Spain, New Zealand, and the Republic of Ireland, stating
“Throughout history, shorter working hours have been used during times of crisis and economic recession as a way of sharing work more equally across the economy between the unemployed and the overemployed. We believe they should be deployed again now to help deal with the economic fallout of the pandemic”
The letter gathered 26 signatories, including:
· John McDonell — Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington, and former Shadow Chancellor (UK)
· Katja Kipping — Chairwoman of Die Linke (Germany)
· Aidan Harper — New Economics Foundation (UK)
· Charlotte Lockhart — CEO of 4 Day Week Global (New Zealand)
· Dave Ward — General Secretary of the Communication Workers Union (UK)
· Len McCluskey — Unite General Secretary (UK)
· Mónica Oltra — Vice-president and Minister for Equality and Inclusive Policies of the Valencian Government (Spain)
It follows a previous letter signed by a group of UK MPs in June this year, which argued that four-day weeks could be used as a “powerful tool to recover from this crisis”.
The history of the five-day week
The right to a shortened work week has been hard-won by our ancestors.
Throughout history, employers have argued that they could make more money if people worked long hours.
During the 1800s, adults were expected to work unlimited hours, six-day a week. This didn’t change until industrialist Robert Owen reduced the working day to ten and a half hours in his Lanark Mills, one of the largest cotton manufacturing establishments in the UK, and started the factory reform movement in 1815. It took another 30 years for the UK Government to enshrine the right to a ten-hour workday into law.
In the US, the idea of a capped working day only became commonplace in the early 1900s, following a victory by the United Mine Workers in 1989 to cap the working day at eight hours.
The idea of a five-day week didn’t enter the mainstream until May 1926, when Ford Motor Company issued a press release, announcing that its automotive workers were moving to a five-day 40 hour week, theorizing it would make their staff more productive and provide for a better work-life balance.
But recent data indicates that we are now working longer than ever and are no longer adhering to an eight-hour workday.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average US employee works 44 hours per week or 8.8 hours per day.
A 2014 national Gallup poll found the average number of working hours for a US employee was 47 hours per week, or 9.4 hours per day, with many people working 50 hours per week.
And the shift to remote working during the pandemic has only made things worse. According to data from NordVPN, which tracks when users connect and disconnect from its internet service, In the U.S., remote employees are logging three hours more per day on the job than before the pandemic. In France, Spain, and the U.K. the day has stretched an additional two hours.
The technological advancements we have witnessed over recent years have led to an always-on culture among knowledge workers, who are expected to be contactable by phone, email, skype, teams, zoom, at a moment’s notice.
With the boundaries between work and home life now completely blurred, there is an urgent need for governments and companies to reconsider how to best structure the working week. Enter the idea of a four-day workweek.
Experimentation gets results
The idea of a four-day workweek has gained increased momentum over the past few years, due to a number of successful experiments across the UK, US, Japan, Sweden, and New-Zealand.
In 2019, Microsoft ran a one-month trial to test out a four-day workweek in its Japan offices. In August 2019, 2,300 employees were given a paid Friday off each week. After five consecutive Fridays off the company reported a sales rise by nearly 40%, the company’s electricity consumption dropped by 23% and there was a 59% reduction in the printing of paper pages. On their day off, workers spent time volunteering, studying, or simply resting to improve their productivity and creativity.
In New Zealand, Perpetual Guardians, an estate planning company, trialed a four-day working week, giving their 240 staff Wednesdays off. In an independent study, researchers at the Auckland University of Technology found employees at the firm maintained their productivity despite having fewer hours available to dedicate to work. What’s more, employee stress levels decreased by an average of 7%, while overall work-life satisfaction increased by 5%.
However, not all reduced hour trials have been successes. An experiment with six-hour days at state-run nursing homes in Gothenburg, Sweden, found that while sick days and productivity rates improved, staff costs rose considerably as more people needed to be hired to fill staff rotas. The experiment was abandoned.
While there are clear benefits to a four-day work-week, there isn’t a one size fits all approach. Any change to working patterns needs to be carefully considered and applied on a sector by sector basis.
How could a four-day work week help countries recover from Covid?
With that said, an increasing body of evidence suggests that implementing a four-day workweek would aid companies as they seek to rebuild themselves after the pandemic.
Researchers at Henley Business School recently completed a survey of over 500 companies who have already made the switch to four day working and found they were making combined savings of almost £29 billion annually. Of those companies, 62% said their staff takes fewer sick days, 63% said their staff produces better quality work and 64% said their staff was more productive.
A four-day week would also help support local businesses and regional economies. Research by the left-leaning think tank autonomy has demonstrated that if people were given a day off during the week, they would spend more money on leisure activities, encouraging domestic tourism and kick-starting local economies.
On a personal level, adopting a four-day week would allow more time for people to undertake housework, care for children and love ones; all without the stress of having to take a pay-cut.
It would also afford people the time to become active members of their local community, through volunteering, supporting charities, or helping out at their children’s school.
Is it a reckless change in the current circumstances?
More conservative politicians and legislators remain extremely nervous about any change, given the dire state of the post-pandemic economy. They see what might in normal times be an interesting experiment as reckless and irresponsible, given the current circumstances.
But it’s impossible to ignore the fact that covid has irreplaceably disrupted our working lives. The challenge now is to figure out how to retain the potential productivity benefits working from home can provide, while supporting economic growth.
The focus on any legislative change should not be to reduce working hours. The focus should be on enhancing productivity, well-being, and work-life balance. Time reduction should be seen as the outcome of effectively implementing such a change. To quote the group calling for a four-day work week:
“Across the world, people are imagining a better future post Covid-19 and overwhelmingly they want a better work-life balance.”
