Closing summary: Labour flexible working policy starts four-day week debate
Is the UK on the brink of a four-day working week becoming the norm? Not yet. However, the new Labour government has acknowledged that its ideas of “flexible working” include compressed hours – working 100% of the hours, but in four days ather than five.
Labour minister Jacqui Smith said that compressed hours could benefit UK productivity by encouraging more people – such as parents or carers – into the workplace.
Ben Willmott, head of public policy for the CIPD, the professional body for HR, said the government should assess the effects of the right to request flexible working that was introduced in April before pushing ahead with more changes. He said:
Flexible working arrangements such as compressed hours, job sharing and term-time working can help people balance their work and home life commitments, while also supporting employer efforts to recruit and retain staff. However flexible working has to work for both the business and workers if it’s to be sustainable and this needs to be recognised in any changes to regulation.
Compressed hours are different to the actual four-day week: doing 80% of the standard hours, but crucially with no loss of pay. But the willingness of the Labour government to even say the words “four-day week” is a marked change from the Conservatives, who tried to block any shift towards a shorter working week for public servants.
There still remains the question of how changes to encourage flexible working will work in practice.
Charlie Thompson, employment partner at Stewarts, a law firm, said:
Employees in the UK already have the right to request flexible working, which includes requesting a four day week, so it’s not yet clear what this “new” law will entail. One possibility is for the government to make it more difficult for employers to refuse such requests, because at present it is quite easy for them to do so.
Felicity Baker, co-founder of Ultimate Resilience, a consultancy on mental health in the workplace, said that she had worked with an IT company that trialled the four-day week last year.
We discovered that giving employees the option of time back with no loss of pay benefited their work/life balance, mental health and overall wellbeing. They never went back.
However, introducing flexibility also has potential to undermine team relationships and derail business objectives if not handled carefully. Highgate found that keeping staff at the centre of planning, by providing training and a buddy system, was crucial to ensure they were well supported and to make changing work patterns sustainable.
In other business and economics news:
Eurozone inflation fell this month to its lowest since June 2021, adding to the case for the European Central Bank (ECB) to cut interest rates in September.
The Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation stayed steady at 2.6% year-on-year in July, as the US central bank prepares to cut interest rates.
Keir Starmer has been warned against caving in to pressure to water down a ban on exploitative zero-hours contracts.
UK house prices dipped in August, marking the first fall in four months, even as the annual rate of growth in the cost of a property remains at a high of more than 18 months.
The social media platform X faces the prospect of a ban in Brazil after failing to meet a court-imposed 24-hour deadline to appoint a legal representative in the country.
Shell is to cut hundreds of jobs from its oil and gas exploration operation in the latest move by the chief executive, Wael Sawan, to slash up to $3bn (£2.3bn) in costs.
Sales of Oasis music have soared since the band announced it was reforming for a series of live gigs next summer, with vinyl and CD sales up more than 500% in the past week at HMV.
You can continue to follow our live coverage from around the world:
In the UK, the government is seeking to make ‘fewer places where you can smoke’
In Europe, high-profile politician Sahra Wagenknecht is sprayed with liquid as Germany gears up for key state elections
In the US, the Harris campaign launches an abortion-focused bus tour as polls show momentum against Trump
In our coverage of the Middle East crisis, a senior Hamas commander is killed by Israeli police in West Bank, IDF says
And there is a lot of sport to ease you into the weekend: it’s day two of the Paralympic Games in Paris; it’s football transfer deadline day; and England are dominating the second men’s test cricket match against Sri Lanka.
Thank you for following the business live blog all of this week. Normal service with the inimitable Graeme Wearden will resume next week! JJ
The buying mood on Wall Street has picked up slightly this morning, perhaps helped by US spending data.
Here are the opening snaps from Reuters on the US’s key stock market indices:
S&P 500 UP 26.43 POINTS, OR 0.47%, AT 5,618.39
NASDAQ UP 136.87 POINTS, OR 0.78%, AT 17,653.30
DOW JONES UP 83.13 POINTS, OR 0.20%, AT 41,418.18
