More Councils to trial 4 day week for 5 days pay

[mrsm43s]

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/green-party-four-day-working-week-lambeth-council-lewisham-hackney-b1299448.html

So what do you think about this? Apparently in South Cambs, the trial was successful leading to cost savings snd improved staff satisfaction, and is now a permanent arrangement.

Personally, I'm all for it, but must admit it's because I work for a local authority, and the more councils that adopt this, then the more likely I am to benefit from it in the future. That said, as a Council tax payer, I can understand people being upset at ever rising CT bills when staff are being handed a free day off a week.

I think it’s great, and 4 day weeks should be normalised much more.

I can't pretend I wouldn't be a little envious!

But if it's saving costs and improving efficiency then the council tax payers benefit as well. Win-win!

Presumably the workload remains the same so they’re not being handed a free day off, just being incentivised to get the work done in a shorter timeframe so they can rebalance work and life better.
As long as work is done to the necessary standard within the expected timeframes I think it’s a good thing.

I think a 4 day week should be the norm.

I love this idea but I’m curious:
if you worked 4 days before and got 4/5 pay, do you now get paid full time?
Does everyone who is part time get paid more as there week is divided by 4 instead of 5?

When I was working we used to dream of such an outcome.

I always wonder what happens to people who are part time. If, for example, you work 4 days already you've likely (in my experience) already made yourself as efficient as possible as your workload probably hasn't changed - particularly if you started as full time and reduced your hours at some point. So are those people allowed to now become full time workers and recieve full time pay? Same as those on 3 days a week, are they now 3 days out of 4 so a higher proportion, or are they forced to do their original percentage but applied to 4 days so a reduction in hours?

It will be interesting to see if the 'cost savings' are reflected in a reduction in the annual Community Charge. 🤔

I wondered this too. And you said it a lot more succinctly than me!

I can't find anywhere if this is what the Civil Service calls Compressed Hours. Same hours but just in 4 days instead of 5.

I don't know, but I'd assume everyone's hours get reduced by one fifth. Presumably annual leave and bank holiday days too.

As a worker it sounds great, as an end user of services I have concerns. I have seen cleaning and communal services reduced from weekly to fortnightly resulting in an increase in the need for pest control. I’ve experienced not be able to book appointments/ contact departments when staff work a 5 day week in relation to a funeral and legal requirements. If the service is not deteriorated then it’s great if it is then they need to look at other options

Cost saving and happy staff, well of course!
they seem to have forgotten that their purpose is to deliver services, including customer service. How was that rated in the trial?

No, it's a reduction in working hours with no reduction in pay.

Takes our local council 3 months or more to reply to an email so presumably that will just become even longer. Personally its just typical public sector bollocks - if the work can be done in 4 days then it can be done in 4 days and good staff don't need 'incentivising' to be efficient - better to shed the dead wood which would be a much bigger cost saving to the tax payer

Do they mean 5 days condensed into 4?

When I went part time I took a pay cut. My workload was supposed to be reduced but it doesn't work like that in many public sector jobs unfortunately. Of course I also get less leave, will have a smaller pension etc.

No. It's reduced hours with no corresponding reduction in pay.

The article doesn't say. Journalism is bloody dead

It's not compressed hours, which is commonplace anyway in local authorities and has been for many years. It's 4 days work for 5 days pay as per South Cambs model.

Yup, customer service is already often poor due to working from home and part timers. I'd hope that the council have conducted proper surveys of "service users", i.e. council tax payers to ask them whether the level of service is good enough. I suspect they havn't done that.

Thanks. It feels like a 20% pay rise then. If productivity is the same they weren't working hard enough in the first place 🤔

I would be okay with it if I was confident five days work would be done in four. I am totally not confident of that at all. Often I am not sure five days work is done in five days.

Also, engaging with other providers/organisations who do work five days means you are not fully able to do so. Because you are not there when they are.

It's not exactly a pay rise, but I guess a 'per hour/day' payrise. Having looked into the South Cambs model, staff are expressly told not to take on an extra days rlwork elsewhere (which is reasonable, since they're trying to improve work life balance). No one ends up with more money in their pocket (except maybe part timers if they don't reduce their hours), but they have more non working time.

I'm very pro this, but know it's because I'm hoping it will eventually be adopted by my council and I'll get to benefit!

It’s likely to be 4 much longer days making up full time hours over 4 days instead of 5.

I think it's largely a good thing, and it has been shown to drive up productivity elsewhere.
They need to ensure people are properly rota'd though and that everyone isn't off on a Friday.