UK tests four-day work week – International

Louise Bloomsfield, one of the British staff who examines the four-day work week in June, says it is possible to “volunteer, learn new skills” or spend more time with family.

The distillery he operates in London, Pressure Drops, is set to launch a massive test in June with 3,000 employees from about 60 companies.

The plan, which is listed as the largest working day reduction in the world, aims to help companies reduce their working hours without reducing wages or income.

Similar tests have been carried out in Spain, Iceland, the United States and Canada, and are scheduled to begin in August in Australia and New Zealand.

Alex Sujung-Kim Pang, project director of 4 Day Week Global, a group that supports experiments, says the six-month period in the UK will benefit companies that have more time to test and collect data.

Adaptation to SMEs should be easy, as large changes can be implemented quickly, he told AFP.

According to Pressure Drop, increasing the productivity and well-being of employees helps reduce the company’s carbon footprint.

A short work week is expected to attract new employees and retain the best in the UK, where unemployment is at an all-time low of nearly 50, with a record number of vacancies: 1.3 million, more than the number of candidates.

– I’m not even in pink –

A short working week is easy to implement in services, and the UK has an advantage in this regard, with the sector accounting for 80% of its GDP.

But for businesses like retail, food and beverages, it’s more complicated, says Jonathan Boys, an economist at the Institute for Personal Development, a human resource association.

He believes that measuring productivity will be the biggest challenge, especially in services, which are less likely to account for quality work than factory output.

But for Aidan Harper, co-author of the book Promoting a Four-Day Work Week (“The Case for a Four Day Week”), less-working countries produce more.

“Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands work less than the United Kingdom and are more productive,” he points out. Greece, on the other hand, is one of the countries with the longest working hours in Europe, but with the lowest productivity, according to him.

Fhil McParlane, a recruitment company that specializes in flexible, four-day-week hours, has increased the number of companies seeking to hire through its site from 30 to 120 over the past two years, reflecting increased flexibility. Search for a better quality of life two years after the outbreak.

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