Less is more, so bring on the four-day working week

Nearly every trial seems to confirm that having an extra day off is a win-win. Helen Coffey asks why it hasn’t taken off yet, and whether a three-day weekend will ever be the norm

- Helen Coffey

If there were ever proof that humans don’t like change, surely it is the four-day week. The straightforward concept – that the working week should be the equivalent of one day shorter but for the same pay – has been swirling around for years without ever really taking off.

But all of a sudden, the world and his wife seem to be gabbing about the idea. The Unison union has officially backed it, demanding the new Labour government takes action to ensure more companies offer this way of working. Campaigners have stepped up their efforts, with both the launch of a new UK-wide pilot and the results of a substantial trial in Portugal being announced this week. And then there’s the latest success story from South Cambridgeshire, where the district council boldly tested a four-day week for hundreds of staff starting in January 2023.

The first and only council to implement the innovative move, the Lib Dem-run local authority stuck to its guns despite fierce resistance from the previous Conservative government. But after ignoring calls from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to shut down the scheme, South Cambridgeshire has reaped the rewards.

“The brave and pioneering trial has clearly been a success,” it said in its recently published independent report, citing a reduction in staff turnover of 39 per cent, an increase in the average number of applications for roles of 53 per cent, and an annual saving of £483,000 in agency costs as a result of hard-tofill roles attracting permanent staff members.