SNAP POLL: Should workers be given the right to work a four-day week? YOUR VERDICT
"Compressed hours" will reportedly be in a new employee rights package, championed by Angela Rayner
PA
"Compressed hours" will reportedly be in a new employee rights package, championed by Angela Rayner, which would allow staff to work their weekly hours over four days, rather than five.
However, the Government has today denied it will force businesses to allow staff to work a four-day week via "compressed hours", but said it does support "flexible working".
The Telegraph today reported that “compressed hours” could feature in a new law, which would mean companies were legally obliged to offer flexible working from day one, except where it's "not reasonably feasible".
Education minister Baroness Jacqui Smith dismissed the publication's report, which said it could force businesses to accept employees' demands for a four-day week, but told LBC: "We think that flexible working is actually good for productivity. The four-day week that I know is on the front of quite a lot of newspapers today, what we’re actually 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.
“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.”
A Whitehall spokesperson said: “We have no plans to impose a four-day working week on employers or employees. Any changes to employment legislation will be consulted on, working in partnership with business.
“Our Make Work Pay plan is designed around increasing productivity and creating the right conditions for businesses to support sustained economic growth. Many employers already provide good, family-friendly conditions for their workers because they know that doing so improves morale and retention.
“We are working in close partnership with business and civil society to find the balance between improving workers’ rights while supporting the brilliant businesses that pay people’s wages.”
In the exclusive poll for GB News membership readers, an overwhelming majority (65 per cent) of the 989 voters thought workers should be given the right to work a four-day week, while just 10 per cent thought they shouldn't. A further 23 per cent said they thought it depended on the business and two per cent said they did not know.
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