Four-day working week trial urged for Welsh public services

People in public services should trial a four-day working week, a report by politicians has urged.

The Petitions Committee said a pilot scheme could work with trials in private firms, with global evidence on new working patterns also considered.

It is argued a shorter week - with fewer hours but on the same pay - could boost productivity and wellbeing.

The committee also considered warnings that sectors such as education, health and hospitality could struggle to cope.

The report said some workers were "already over-worked and moving to a four-day week would exacerbate the stress-related challenges they face".

It also highlights concerns that it could be "too rigid an approach when greater flexibility is required in the workplace" and that some organisations suggest it "poses organisational challenges, and may be too complicated to implement".

• Is a four-day working week too good to be true?

• Who fancies a four-day working week?

Outlining the case for taking a day off the working week, the report said it could:

• Provide a better work-life balance, improve mental and physical health and job satisfaction

• Boost productivity

• Reduce air pollution and low carbon emissions due to reduced commuting

• Contribute to greater gender equality, with men taking on more responsibility for unpaid care and housework

Committee chairman, Labour Member of the Senedd for Alyn and Deeside Jack Sargeant, agreed it was a "bold proposal" but "no more bold than those campaigners who fought for a five-day week, paid holiday and sick pay which we now take for granted".

"People in Wales work some of the longest hours in Europe. Despite these long hours the UK lags behind on productivity. Once we break that link of 'hours worked equalling productivity' we can start to look at a four-day week differently."

The report said that after "successful trials" in Iceland "governments in Scotland, Ireland and Spain are all devising their own four-day week pilots that are scheduled to begin next year".

Mr Sargeant said: "I hope the Welsh government will consider our call for a modest experiment in our public sector, so that future debates on this subject will be more fully informed by evidence from Welsh people on the economic, social and environmental impacts of a four-day week."

The report follows a petition to the Senedd by Mark Hooper, from Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, who brought in a four-day working week at the cooperatively-owned business Indycube, which provides a network of remote co-working spaces.

He called the report a "major step forward towards a world where we have a better relationship with work".

"Today, our lives are too often dominated by how we earn our living and that makes us more ill, sadder and ultimately less productive," he said.

Iceland has already tried out changing the traditional office hours

One member of the committee opposed the idea.

Conservative South Wales Central MS Joel James said the evidence considered "does not provide adequate justification to spend Welsh government budget, intended for the people of Wales, on a scheme that the Welsh government does not have the legislative competence to implement across the board".

"The arguments for the four-day working week are not supported by sufficient research data on improving productivity, which the whole premise of justifying a four-day working week rests upon.

"I believe it is not something that could be introduced in all sectors, and would lead to division and injustice in society."

A Welsh government spokesman said: "We are following the pilots in other countries with interest.

"A shorter working week is just one example of flexible working we want to encourage more employers to provide workers with greater choice and flexibility about where and when they work, wherever possible."

• BBC WALES INVESTIGATES: The subjects affecting the lives of people in Wales

• A CAREER CHANGE WITH A DIFFERENCE: Police new recruits adapt to life on the beat