Workers’ rights could be strengthened

Full-time workers’ rights to ask for a four-day working week could be strengthened under government plans to increase flexible working.

Employees would still have to work their full hours to receive their full pay but could request to compress their contracted hours into a shorter working week, as first reported by the Daily Telegraph.

Since April, workers have already had the right to ask for flexible working as soon as they start a job but firms do not have to agree.

The government says it will not impose changes on staff or businesses, but the Conservatives say businesses are “petrified” about the plans.

A spokesperson at the Department for Business and Trade said: “Any changes to employment legislation will be consulted on, working in partnership with business.”

Education Minister Baroness Jacqui Smith told LBC that “flexible working is actually good for productivity”.

She said the four-day week being discussed would allow someone to work 10 hours a day for four days instead of working eight hours a day for five 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,” she added.

Employees already have the right to request flexible working

Employers must deal with requests in a “reasonable manner” but can turn them down “if they have a good business reason for doing so”.

Charlie Thompson, employment partner at law firm Stewarts, said: “It’s not yet clear what this “new” law will entail.

“One possibility is for the government to make it more difficult for employers to refuse such requests, because at present it is quite easy for them to do so.”

Earlier this year, Morrisons scrapped four-day working weeks for its head office staff following feedback.

In order to make the four-day week work, staff had to work some Saturdays, which resulted in complaints and dissatisfaction.

In July, Asda shelved a four-day week trial after staff complained that their longer shifts were too demanding.

Ben Willmott, head of public policy at HR body the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development, said flexible working arrangements such as compressed hours “can help people balance their work and home life commitments, while also supporting employer efforts to recruit and retain staff”.

“However flexible working has to work for both the business and workers if it’s to be sustainable.”

He added that it would make sense for the government to assess the impact of changes introduced in April, which allow people to request flexible working from day one of employment, before making further changes.

Kelly Burton is a mental health nurse from Crewe who asked to condense her hours into a four day working week to get a better work-life balance.

She was granted permission from her employer once she could prove it was possible to do her five-day job in the space of four days.

“Since July I have started working Monday to Thursday 8-6pm instead of Monday to Friday 9-5pm.

“I’m happier at work, can spend the extra day looking after elderly parents and still have my weekend. Perfect work-life balance,” Ms Burton said.

She thinks she would have had to change jobs or move to part-time if flexible working hadn’t been an option.

“My employer has a happy worker and a happy worker always goes over and above for them,” she said.

Details of any changes are expected in the autumn when a law to create a new package of workers’ rights is expected to begin its journey through Parliament.

Labour has pledged to repeal some anti-trade union laws, restrict the use of zero-hours contracts and expand flexible working arrangements.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer calls the proposals “the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation”.

But the Conservative opposition claims the approach would damage business and lead to reduced productivity.

In 2022, several UK companies took place in a six-month trial to test a four-day working week, which saw workers receive full pay for working fewer hours.

Tyler Grange, an environmental consultancy, took part in the trial and in 2023 told the BBC it was sticking with the working pattern.

Simon Ursell, its managing director, said the first month of the trial had been “a bit white knuckle”.

But the firm said it found the extra day off boosted staff happiness and even resulted in more people applying to work there.

However, the experiment did not work for Mark Roderick’s engineering and industrial supplies company Allcap.

“As opposed to 10 normal workdays, we found that employees would have nine extreme ones – once they got to their scheduled day off they were exhausted,” he said last year.

“Once we factored in holidays, sickness and caring responsibilities, we also struggled to find cover for an employee on their rest day,” he said.