A Bristol-based environmental organisation has moved to a four-day working week without any reduction in pay for staff.
Community interest company City to Sea employs 19 people, who are all now working a 32-hour week, but are being paid the same salary as when they worked for five days. The organisation, which is based in St Pauls in the city and campaigns to reduce plastic pollution, confirmed the move after running a four-day week trial, and receiving positive feedback from staff.
The organisation has been officially accredited as a 'Gold Standard' four-day week employer under a scheme run by the 4 Day Week Campaign, which recognes employers who offer shorter working weeks. City to Sea said it would now "embed" the shorter working pattern into staff contracts.
Hetti Dysch, City to Sea’s HR manager, said: "The ‘blaze and burn culture’ of faster, bigger, and better creates workforce burnout and fatigue. Ultimately this culture has led to climate catastrophe as profit is placed above the protection of our precious planet. At City to Sea, we’ve switched to the four-day week as we care about the long-term wellbeing of our team who campaign to protect our oceans from plastic pollution."
Since the Covid pandemic, the four-day working week has become more popular and is now being trialled and implemented across the world.
Numerous studies have shown that moving to a four-day week boosts productivity and workers’ wellbeing. Last year, Atom Bank became the largest UK four-day week employer with all 430 staff moving to a four-day, 34-hour working week, with no reduction in pay.
More than 60 companies have signed up for the UK's biggest ever four-day week pilot which begins in June. The pilot is being run by 4 Day Week Global in partnership with think tank Autonomy, the 4 Day Week Campaign and researchers at Cambridge University, Oxford University and Boston College. It will run for six months.
Participating organisations will trial a four-day week with no loss of pay for employees, based on the principle of the 100:80:100 model - 100% of the pay for 80% of the time, in exchange for a commitment to maintain at least 100% productivity.
Joe Ryle, 4 Day Week Campaign director, said: “The four-day week with no loss of pay is a win-win scenario for both workers and employers. With the pandemic easing off and workers desperate for a better work-life balance, now is the perfect time for companies to implement a four-day week. In the wake of the great resignation, organisations should embrace the four-day week as a way of retaining staff and attracting new talent.”
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