A four-day working week trial has been launched in the UK, after ‘overwhelming success’ elsewhere

Ah, the four-day working week. We get a taste for it every time there’s a bank holiday, particularly around Easter when we seem to have a run of short weeks meaning there’s more time for us to do the things we love, plus a greater incentive to get through our workload at record speed.

But now it looks like we might not have to rely on bank holidays to give us our four-day fix for much longer. Today (17th January), a six-month trial period of a four-day working week has been launched across the UK, with around 30 companies – including tech firm Canon – taking part. Employees won’t lose any money, as the trial is based on the principle of the 100:80:100 model – 100% of the pay for 80% of the time.

The trial has been organised by 4 Day Week Global in partnership with think tank Autonomy, the 4 Day Week UK Campaign and researchers at Cambridge University, Oxford University and Boston College.

“More and more businesses are moving to productivity focused strategies to enable them to reduce worker hours without reducing pay,” said Joe O’Connor, pilot programme manager for 4 Day Week Global.

“The four-day week challenges the current model of work and helps companies move away from simply measuring how long people are “at work”, to a sharper focus on the output being produced. 2022 will be the year that heralds in this bold new future of work.” 

Last summer, MPs announced a push for the four-day week to become part of normal business. The new working week was first trialed in Iceland, where it was concluded as an “overwhelming success” according to the results. The analysis of the trial – which saw around 86% of Icelandic workers negotiating contracts with permanently shortened hours between 2015 and 2019 – found that employers were less stressed and had a better work-life balance. Meanwhile employers saw no drastic fall in productivity or provision of services. Sounds like a win-win!

The success of the trial has sparked interest in a similar set up here in the UK. In fact, Director of research at British think tank Autonomy Will Stronge said: “This study shows that the world’s largest ever trial of a shorter working week in the public sector was by all measures an overwhelming success.”

He added: “It shows that the public sector is ripe for being a pioneer of shorter working weeks – and lessons can be learned for other governments.

“Iceland has taken a big step towards the four-day working week, providing a great real-life example for local councils and those in the UK public sector considering implementing it here in the UK.”

Back in June 2021, a number of MPs including Mhairi Black from the SNP and the Green Party’s Caroline Lucas put the idea forward in a signed letter to Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak.

The MPs noted that a shorter week would not only benefit our mental health but also the environment and the economy, arguing the premise of a shorter working time has been used throughout history as a way to respond to economic crises and rises in unemployment.

The MPs wrote the four-day week was used “as a way of reducing unemployment during the Great Depression of the 1930s, which led to the normalisation of the eight-hour day and the 40-hour week.”