Labour will propose a law change this autumn that will make it easier for workers to move from a five-day to a four-day week.
The push, revealed by The Telegraph, is part of the wider workers’ rights package being championed by Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister, and Jonathan Reynolds, the Business Secretary.
The proposals contain nuance, with some uncertainties remaining about how it will work in practice.
What are the current rules?
It is already the case that employees have a legal right to request flexible working. However, there is no obligation on companies to agree.
Labour wants to change that balance of power. Instead, companies will be legally required to give flexible working as the default from day one, except where it is “not reasonably feasible”.
How does that apply to the four-day week?
When Government figures talk about “flexible working” they mean a variety of things.
Hybrid working is one, which allows people to work from home as well as in their place of employment. There has been a step-change in hybrid working’s popularity since the Covid pandemic.
Another is the “right to switch off”. This is the idea that workers should not be required to check and respond to emails after their shifts have finished.
Both will be contained in Labour’s workers’ rights package, as will another element: “compressed hours”, which is where the four-day week comes in.
What are compressed hours?
This is the idea that a worker can ask to work their entire week’s contracted hours in an irregular way across the week.
For example, if someone is paid to work eight-hour shifts for five days, they could instead ask to work 10-hour shifts for four days, having the fifth day free.
This is, by definition, working a four-day week. But supporters of the change note that it is subtly different from another common understanding of the four-day week.
Under compressed hours, a worker will still complete 100 per cent of their contracted hours, rather than working 80 per cent of their hours while still getting the same pay, an idea some have pushed.
Will companies have to agree to a four-day week?
Not quite. Labour’s proposals place an obligation on companies to provide flexible working – such as compressed hours – as a default from day one, but there are caveats.
The key line is found in Labour’s “Plan to Make Work Pay” document, published after years of consultation with trade unions as well as companies back in May, just before the general election.
It promised a Labour government would be “making flexible working the default from day one for all workers, except where it is not reasonably feasible”.
So if a company can show a request for a four-day week is “not reasonably feasible” they will not have to approve the request.
What does that mean in practice?
Labour sources have stressed they understand that in some work environments, working from home or four-day weeks are simply not realistic.
For example, a nurse or ambulance driver will not be able to demand to work from home and a teacher who works five days a week will not be free to work until Thursdays without the approval of the school leadership.
Exactly where the line is drawn will depend, in large part, on how the Government converts the phrase “not reasonably feasible” into legal text.
Would a four-day week help or hinder productivity?
It is over this issue that a lot of the political battles in the coming weeks will be fought.
Labour is arguing that a four-day week could boost productivity. Employees doing shift patterns that fit their lives could incentivise more efficient work.
Flexible working generally, Labour argues, will let people such as new parents more easily return to the workplace and could help tackle the “worklessness” problem in the UK.
But the Tories wholeheartedly reject these arguments.
Kevin Hollinrake, the shadow business secretary, said: “Labour must listen to businesses who are petrified about day one employment rights and bringing in the four-day week through the back door. It will be businesses and consumers who pay, and growth that suffers if they don’t listen.”
When will this happen?
Labour promised to table legislation on its new workers’ rights package within 100 days of taking office, which means by mid-October.
Government figures are keen to stress that they will make the moves in consultation with businesses, suggesting changes may not be implemented until next year.
