POLL OF THE DAY: Should we introduce a four-day week? YOUR VERDICT

POLL OF THE DAY: Should we introduce a four-day week? YOUR VERDICT

WATCH HERE: Civil servants ask for four-day week

GB News
Oliver Trapnell

By Oliver Trapnell


Published: 23/02/2024

- 05:00

Updated: 23/02/2024

- 21:01

The union outlined a number of demands fro the Cabinet Office

The Union supporting Civil Servants has been slammed after demanding a four-day working week in a letter to the Cabinet Office.

The Public and Commercial Service (PCS) has been branded an “absolute joke” after it demanded that Civil Servants be allowed to receive 35 days of holiday and work one-day less a week but still be on the same wage.


Fran Heathcote, general secretary of PCS, wrote to the Cabinet Office minister and demanded a “significant shortening of the working week” without specifying what this would entail.

The largest union representing more than 200,000 public sector workers went on to ask for a £5,000 uplift for London-based roles and higher wages for the Civil Service’s three most junior grades.

POLL OF THE DAY: Should we introduce a four-day week? YOUR VERDICT

POLL OF THE DAY: Should we introduce a four-day week? YOUR VERDICT

GB News

Tory MP Greg Smith told GB News: “This is an absurd demand. In what other world can you go to your boss and say I want to work a day less a week, but I want to stay on the same money?

“You'd be laughed out of town for that absolute joke. Especially when you remember who pays for the civil service. We do, taxpayers up and down the land who will be raising an eyebrow at this demand.”

He added: “We need them to have rocket boosters underneath them to deliver the services domestically and the things that we need them to be doing with the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defense daily.

“A four-day week just just doesn't cut it.”

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GB News’ Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg told the Telegraph that civil servants should either be working “full time” or “take a pay cut”.

A Government spokesman said: “We have no plans to implement a four-day working week on full-time pay.

“It’s important that Civil Service pay awards are both fair and affordable for the taxpayer.”

GB News membership readers were exclusively asked if they thought we should introduce a four-day week.

86 per cent were against the idea, while 14 per cent believe the UK should introduce a shortened work week.

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