Ministers warn English councils not to adopt four-day working weeks

3 years ago by Noit to c/uk_politics

Central government’s attempt to restrict councils’ ability to try out the practice is ‘a massive overreach’, say council leaders

Noit 77 points 3 years ago

Kill WFH, kill the four-day-week, the population must be restrained to their offices lest they use all that spare time to better themselves.

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DessertStorms 15 points 3 years ago

lest they use all that spare time to better themselves. unionise and protest against the exploitative system that has them slaving away making other people money.

I guess you could see those as interchangeable, but lets be honest, it isn't us taking up hobbies that the rich are worried about..

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Naich 42 points 3 years ago

They are absolutely terrified that people will see that it works.

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theinspectorst 33 points 3 years ago

What business is this of central government? Local government is elected (unlike Rishi). If voters elect their councillors to do this, what business is it of Westminster to overrule them? If voters are unhappy about these policies, they have the chance to express that unhappiness come election day.

Also, this is a basic value for money thing. Public sector roles do not pay well. If you want to get good quality people into the public sector, you have to offer them a suitable reward proposition - and if you can't do it through money, you have to offer them something else like flexibility. But the private sector has become a lot more flexible since Covid and so the public sector needs to change its offering to retain some sort of USP.

Do the Tories not care about value for taxpayer money? (Rhetorical question: of course they don't, they've spent the last few years spaffing it up the wall to their mates...)

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DessertStorms 16 points 3 years ago

Do the Tories not care about value for taxpayer money? (Rhetorical question: of course they don't, they've spent the last few years spaffing it up the wall to their mates...)

I don't even think it's that, but as is always the case with conservatives - the suffering is the point. They don't want happy workers, they want desperate workers, those are easier to continue abusing and much less likely to unionise or protest (because they don't have the time or energy to d anything but survive)

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mathemachristian -5 points 3 years ago

What do you mean what business is this to the central gov? Their job is to uphold the liberal order, to ensure that workers keep working.

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stoy 26 points 3 years ago

Meanwhile, I want a three day work week, three days on, three days off.

However, it would work more like a shift work, so when you are off, others are working, unemployment wouöd plummit, the consumer base would go up, and happyness would skyrocket

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Grimfelion 3 points 3 years ago

Healthcare… 3, 12 hour shifts per week… shit… be a nurse in the Bay Area and you can be part of the 1% without working OT…

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stoy 3 points 3 years ago

We were paid kinda shit, but the "inconvenient work hours" pay made up for it in parts...

Now I am being paid more for better hours, better work, better commute and am much happier here.

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Alexstarfire -11 points 3 years ago

Can I live in your fantasy world? I don't want to work as much but I also know there is no simple solution.

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Uranium_Green 5 points 3 years ago

Why don't you think working less hours (assuming that the same amount of work gets completed in the same time frame) couldn't work?

The biggest issues I see with it are for things where jobs that are restricted by physical limitations (manual labor, construction, etc) wouldn't be able to follow the same reduction in working hours, but beyond that, many jobs could likely benefit from it.

The other way it could be achieved is paying people more per hour of time worked whilst having people working less hours but also increasing amount of people working on a job, which would result in more people being employed and likely an increase in productivity.

We have a higher efficiency in output of work per hour nowadays than we did 50 years ago, yet we work longer hours for less compensation than we did then, IIRC

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SturgiesYrFase 6 points 3 years ago

I work for a public body in Scotland, we're currently on 37.5 hrs weekly, annualised, and come April we're moving to 35 hrs weekly, annualised. We're in winter hours so I work 7.5 hrs a day including breaks, and only 4 days a week. I'm a Stone Mason, so manual labour, summer hours are longer and 5 days a week to be able to effectively use the good weather and longer days, but I'm salaried, so my wages stay the same regardless of what the work schedule is. I'd happily move to a 30 hrs work week, and do like 45 in the summer months, and 15 or 20 in the winter, there's sweet fk all to do when it's pishen of rain and cold af anyway.

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stoy 3 points 3 years ago

Sure, you can live in the fantasy world, when you stop being a dick.

I obviously know that my suggestion would completely change the civilization as we know it.

No large hollidays, no actual weekend, lost social life with those who work the oposite schedule, vacation/event planning would be an absolute mess.

Coordinating with other companies/countries that don't use this system would be an absolute nightmare.

Converting the entire world is practically impossible.

But the concept is interesting, imagine a world with no company downtime, you need to go to the bank? Ok just go when you are have a free day, there are no special open hours just because it is your weekend, all shops are open as normal, no need to wait untill 10 to get what you need, or reversely, you can get stuff you need in the evenings, stores doesn't close early just because you are off work.

That would also mean that people have more time to practice their hobbies, giving them an incentive to buy more equipment for said hobby, meaning more income for companies, add to that that you have more people doing the job, so that makes even more consumers the companies can profit off of.

It is an interesting, if practically impossible concept.

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Lifebandit666 8 points 3 years ago

Converting the entire world is practically impossible.

I disagree, COVID got a lot of the world to stay indoors. So it's totally possible, it's just that the higher ups don't want to do it so they won't.

We as a species could achieve all sorts of it wasn't for the rich cunts at the top stopping it.

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stoy 1 point 3 years ago

Covid changed where we worked, not when, which is a far larger change, especially to get sll companies and governments to agree to the change.

While the rich guys at the top does have plenty of power, this concept that I presented would change the entire culture of the world, and will probably show to be wildly impopular among the working class as well as the rich guys at the top.

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autotldr 11 points 3 years ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The guidance appears to be the latest salvo in a war of words between the government and South Cambridgeshire district council, which is believed to be the only English authority so far to have experimented with a four-day week.

The council has said its continuing trial of the practice, in which office staff and bin collectors are paid the same for working 20% fewer hours, has already helped it improve recruitment and led to over £500,000 in savings on agency workers.

Supporters of the four-day week have called it a win-win for workers and employers because it improves staff wellbeing and productivity.

The guidance says: “Councils which are undertaking four-day working week activities should cease immediately and others should not seek to pursue in any format.

Cllr Pete Marland, chair of the Local Government Association’s resources board, said: “More than nine in 10 councils are experiencing staff recruitment and retention difficulties across a diverse range of skills, professions and occupations.

They should be free to pilot innovative solutions to address local challenges and deliver crucial services to their residents.

The original article contains 545 words, the summary contains 179 words. Saved 67%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

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