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Over a dozen Labour MPs are supporting an amendment to the landmark Employment Rights Bill – being spearheaded by Deputy PM Angela Rayner – to push for the change
Over a dozen Labour MPs are calling on ministers to consider a four-day working week as part of a workers’ rights shake-up.
The backbenchers are supporting an amendment to the landmark Employment Rights Bill – being spearheaded by Deputy PM Angela Rayner. It would commit the government to establish a body to provide recommendations on how a transition could be made from a five-day working week to a four-day week.
Maya Ellis, the Labour MP for Ribble Valley, said: “I hope our government can be brave enough to take the first steps now, in what I believe will one day be considered the norm.”
Other MPs backing the amendment include Kim Johnson, Rachael Maskell, , Maya Ellis, Ian Byrne, Imran Hussain, and Paula Barker, and Green MP Ellie Chowns.
Last month it emerged more than 200 firms had opted to give more than 5,000 employees a permanent four-day week – with no loss of pay. A 2023 survey of companies taking part in trials also found a huge 71% reporting lower levels of burnout and a 51% fall in the likelihood an employee would quit.
Peter Dowd, the Labour MP for Bootle, who proposed the amendment, said: “The benefits of greater productivity in the economy as a result of new technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) must be passed back to workers in more free leisure time.
“A four-day, 32 hour working week is the future of work and I urge my party to back this amendment so we can begin a much wider transition.”
Director of the 4 Day Week Foundation campaign group, Joe Ryle, said: “Compressing the same amount of hours into four-days rather than five is not the same thing as a true four-day working week. What is missing from the Bill is a commitment to explore a genuinely shorter working week which we know workers desperately want.
“As hundreds of British companies and one local council have already shown, a four-day week with no loss of pay can be a win-win for both workers and employers.”
The Employment Rights Bill, which boosts six pay provisions and bans exploitative zero-hours contracts, is currently going through the Commons.
Campaigners highlighted Ms Rayner previously described flexible working as “no threat to the economy.” But last year Labour minister Emma Reynolds blunty rejected the idea of a four-day working week for civil servants – despite calls from unions.