Yahoo Finance Labour resists union demands for four-day week
Labour is resisting union demands to champion the four-day work week as calls grow for staff to spend fewer hours in the office without a hit to their pay.
The party has faced pressure to adopt a four-day working week as an official policy in the run-up to the election. However, insiders insist there are no plans to do so despite it being a key Labour policy during the 2019 general election.
A senior adviser said: “There are no plans to do it, it’s a decision for individual businesses.
“It’s not in any conversation that I have had, or in any manifesto-level conversations.”
Cutting working hours was a flagship policy when Jeremy Corbyn was Labour leader. He vowed to move to a 32-hour week within a decade as part of his manifesto for 2019’s election.
In his speech at the Labour Party’s conference in Brighton that year, John McDonnell, the former shadow chancellor, promised that the next Labour government would “reduce the average full-time working week” as Britons “work some of the longest hours in Europe”.
However, Sir Keir Starmer has denied that Labour will lurch to the Left if it wins the general election, arguing that he was “not going to be deflected” in his pursuit of wealth creation.
Labour is yet to publicly spell out its stance, with one four-day week activist saying that the “official position is watching brief”.
The party has been fighting the election on the economy and has been in regular contact with major business leaders, triggering fury among some trade unions and activists who claimed the party has surrendered to corporate interests.
But Labour has been supportive of businesses shifting to a shorter week if it works for them, with deputy leader Angela Rayner last year urging hundreds of bosses to consider the results of a major trial into the idea.
More than 3,000 people working for 61 businesses tested out a shorter week with no loss of pay in 2022 as part of a nationwide pilot aimed at transforming working life in Britain. Researchers concluded at the end that sick days dropped 65pc while revenue increased.
A decision not to make a four-day week official policy will likely disappoint one of Labour’s biggest backers, Unison, after its members last month called for the right to a four-day working week with no hit to pay.
Unison has donated over £8m to Labour since 2019.
The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, the biggest union representing public sector workers, has also been calling for a “significant shortening” of hours with no pay cuts.
Ahead of this week’s election party leaders received a joint letter from 40 business executives, including the former chief executive of Oxfam GB, pushing for the next government to introduce a law that would support an official shift to fewer working hours.
The letter, seen by The Telegraph, argues that the current nine-to-five day has “been the standard way of working for almost 100 years” even though “technological advancements mean the way we work now bears little similarity” to long ago.
Calls for a four-day week have caused alarm in some quarters given that Unison, which has more than 1.3 million members, represents workers in many crucial public service jobs including the NHS, police services, schools and local government.
Unison also represents staff at South Cambridgeshire District Council, the first British council to introduce a four-day week.
However, not all the unions agree that a shorter week should be a priority if Labour wins power this week.
Sources close to Labour’s biggest backer, Unite, said a shorter week is not their focus as their primary issue is pay.
A spokesman for the official 4 Day Week Campaign said: “Claims that a four-day week could widen inequality are wrong and way off the mark.
“Those that stand to benefit most include disabled people and those with caring responsibilities for whom an extra day off work each week with no loss in pay will make a tremendous difference.
“A four-day week has the potential to massively boost job recruitment and retention in the NHS too.”
