Welsh Senedd calls for four-day week pilot

The calls come as a result of a Senedd Petition by social entrepreneur Mark Hooper from Barry, in Wales.

After gathering evidence on the issue, a report published Tuesday by the Senedd’s Petitions Committee recommends that the Welsh Government conducts pilots within the devolved public sector to reduce working hours with no loss of earnings for employees.

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The report stated that the pilot should work with trials already held in the private sector and be impartially assessed to measure the economic, social and environmental impacts.

With Welsh workers working some of the longest hours in Europe, fears of mental drain and burnout were taken into consideration by the committee.

Some of the arguments for a reduced working week claim it can boost productivity alongside well-being. Benefits for the environment and greater gender equality are also cited as arguments in favour.

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Hooper hailed the report as 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.

Jack Sargeant MS, Chair of the Senedd’s Petitions Committee, said: “It is 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. 

“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 will now be sent to Welsh Government for consideration.

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