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Labour refuses to back four-day week in blow to campaigners
Advocates of a shorter week had hoped the party would be more open to changes
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The Government has ruled out backing a four-day week in a blow to campaigners who had hoped the Labour Party might pave the way for a radical overhaul.
The 4 Day Week Campaign, which is urging bosses to sign up to its second nationwide trial later this year, said that “with a new Labour Government, change is in the air”.
However, Jonathan Reynolds, the Business Secretary, sought to distance himself from the idea on Wednesday, with a spokesman confirming that “this isn’t [the] Government’s planned policy”.
This is thought to be the first time that Labour has publicly set out its stance on the topic, after facing pressure from unions and activists to adopt a four-day working week as an official policy in the run-up to the election.
Labour sources told The Telegraph at the time that there were “no plans” to do so, as Sir Keir Starmer denied that Labour would lurch to the Left if it won the general election.
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 then 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”.
Joe Ryle, director of the 4 Day Week Campaign, said that a four-day week with no loss of pay “can be a win-win for workers and employers”, adding that the current working week was “invented 100 years ago and is no longer fit for purpose”.
He said earlier this week that he hoped a more “sympathetic Labour government” could pave the way for local authorities to switch to a shorter week.
Companies have been asked to sign up to this year’s four-day week pilot, which will start in November and will also involve testing out other alternative working patterns, such as flexible start and finish times, a nine-day fortnight or compressed hours.
More than 3,000 people working for 61 companies were involved in the previous pilot in 2022, which concluded that a four-day week reduced sick days and boosted revenue.
Labour has been supportive of businesses shifting to a shorter week if it works for them, with Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner last year urging hundreds of bosses to consider the results of the trial.
“If you can deliver within a four-day working week, then why not?,” she said.
Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, has also been an advocate of a shorter working week.
However, some companies which have done their own four-day week trials this year, including Asda and Domestic & General, have dropped their plans after staff claimed the shorter week left them feeling exhausted. The trials saw staff condense their regular working hours into four days.