The Case for a Four Day Week

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Anna Coote. The Case for a Four Day Week

Contents

Guide

List of Illustrations

Pages

The Case For series

The Case for a Four-Day Week

Acknowledgements

1Introduction

Where did ‘normal’ come from?

Economic developments

Cultural developments

We can change what is ‘normal’

Notes

2Why We Need a Shorter Working Week

Health and wellbeing

Distributions of work and time

Paid and unpaid labour

Gender relations

Transforming childcare

Co-producing public services

Taking control and enriching democracy

Safeguarding the environment

Notes

3Some Challenges

Will a shorter working week mean that people can’t choose?

Is leisure more sustainable?

What about pay?

Is a shorter working week bad for the economy?

Will automation come to the rescue?

Can rising hour-for-hour productivity compensate for lost time?

What about the 24/7 economy?

Rethinking the goals of the economy

Notes

4Learning from Practical Experience

State-led interventions

A 35-hour week in France

A six-hour day trial for care workers in Gothenburg, Sweden

A compressed working week in Utah, USA

Voluntary reductions in the Netherlands

Time credits in Belgium

Negotiated agreements at sector and workplace levels

Negotiated settlements in Germany

‘Drive for 35’, UK Communication Workers Union

Employers’ initiatives

A four-day week at Perpetual Guardian, New Zealand

Trial by Microsoft in Japan

A coalition of interests: Four Day Week Ireland

Learning from practical experience

Impacts on workers’ everyday experience

Impacts on quality of work and economic output

Initiatives led by governments and trade unions

Questions of control, choice and equality

Changing the climate of opinion

Notes

5A Road Map for Transition

Preparing the ground

Collective bargaining

Individual claims

Pioneering employers

Supporting innovation

Supporting trade unions

Supporting individuals

Supporting employers

Strengthening and extending existing entitlements

Care leave

Make public holidays additional to statutory annual leave

Tapered retirement

Changing the climate of opinion

Embedding change and building momentum

Establish independent oversight

Measure working time accurately

Integrate reduced working time with other policy programmes

Set limits for working hours

Notes

In Conclusion

Index

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

Y

Z

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PRAISE FOR THE CASE FOR A FOUR-DAY WEEK

‘A compelling argument for limiting working hours to the equivalent of a four day week, backed by a range of suggested policy initiatives. Particularly valuable is the demonstration of the beneficial effects of reduced hours on the morale and performance of employees, and the account of case studies in reduction from round the world.’

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Source: OECD https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=AVE_HRS

When Keynes made his ill-fated prediction, he assumed that economy-wide labour productivity – that is, gross domestic product (GDP) per hour worked – would rise to a level that enabled society’s needs to be met while everyone spent far fewer hours in paid employment. He anticipated an era of ‘material abundance’, bringing with it a challenge to ensure that it would ‘yield up the fruits of a good life’.

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