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.

Do the hours on the 4 days increase though? I do a 4 day week as I condensed my hours. I have to work 7-5 on those 4 days for it not to affect my pay.

edited- apologies I see this has been answered and it is a reduction in hours not pay. I didn’t see that in the article.

I work for an LA and I think it’s tone deaf and stupid. I think I may have fallen for this thread though.

Have to admit I agree with this.
One of the reasons I refused to go part time after having kids was that I was still getting 100% workload but only having 80% hours to do it in and not getting paid. Felt like a mug's game.

If they can still get the work done in less time, fewer people were needed in the first place.

But well played those council workers for managing to negotiate it.

Envious. I’m in a reform council. More likely they’ll ask us for 6 days work for 5 days pay!

Sounds like compressed hours which I do currently .I do full time hours but get a day off midweek which is great

If this means 40 hours over 4 days then fair enough if it fits the service.
If this means 32 hours over 4 days then the public will continue to think we're complete wankers.
If I complete all my work in 32 hours, there's still a never ending supply of work that needs doing.
Fucks sake.

It's not compressed hours or longer days. It's less working days/hours for no reduction in pay. See South Cambs Council model or https://www.4dayweek.co.uk/ for more details. It's a 32 hour week or less for full time pay.

Maybe Lambeth will let me pay 4/5 of my Council tax?

Frankly if they can do 5 days work in 4 they are overstaffed.

I think it’s great. I work for a very progressive LA, and we have an agile working policy so it works in a similar way. I know our directors are keen to take it one step further by introducing 4 day weeks.

I work 4 days so wonder if I'd get a payrise?

Not that it matters as I work in the private sector and if they thought we could get 5 days work done in 4 they'd just combine posts and sack a load of people.

I’m really not ok with this ! Should be compressed hours or reduced pay. If they can still pay the same wages and reduce working hours down one would argue that they do not need as many staff or it should be a pay cut. Most private sector companies are sweating their staff as much as possible

So , do they have to put in 5 days worth of work in their 4 days , or just 4 days work in 4 days ?
Both scenarios seem dodgy to me. If they can do 5 days work in only 4 days why are they being paid to coast?
If it takes them 5 days now who will pick up the slack !
The public sector needs to justify this action

4 days work for 5 days pay?

If they can comfortably do all their work in 4 days (without compressing hours) then they were over staffed in the first place

I live in south Cambs. It's not popular locally. I had a council tax query when my dad died and it took weeks to sort out as they had a backlog of work. The bin men are also 4 days a week now.
Although if I worked there I'd love it!

Yes

Well yes, there’s been quite a sizeable amount of peer reviewed research on this. Do google.

Oh I'm not sure at all. My local council is absolutely useless, 30 minute waits to be answered by the call centre, they then email the relevant department for you as everyone is WFH, no one gets back to you, you have to chase it up.....it'll surely be even worse if the workforce available on any given day is reduced by 20%.
Perhaps they should have to meet relevant KPI's before this is introduced.

The trials so far have shown better productivity and cost savings due to less burnt out staff, less churn of staff with better continuity of service, so less time spent onboarding and training and cost savings from reduced recruitment costs, ability to fill hard to fill roles (with presumably a higher quality of applicant since the roles are more desireable) and higher staff satisfaction and reduced sickness and associated costs.

If the staff are happier, healthier and more loyal, service levels are being maintained or improved, there's less staff changes for service users and the Council is saving money, why would people be against it?

Isn’t this a legal case waiting to happen?

Because if I was already working four days a week, I would be asking the council to backdate my pay so that I got five days a week pay…..

As a council employee, I’d obviously like this. Would be interesting to see how it applies to part time workers.

I do 22.5 hours (60% of a full time 37.5). So am I now considered to do 75% (22.5 out of 30) and paid the extra, or do my hours get cut down to 18 (60% of 30) for the same pay?

Why backdated pay? Presumably part time workers would get the same proportional reduction in hours for their existing pay at the point the scheme starts as the full time workers, so treated just the same? I skim read the S Cambs policy last night, and fairly sure they prorata for part time employees.

That could be said for many businesses. Private sector have to pay for recruitment. Perhaps if retention is so bad then processes need looking at and management / staff at but as far as I’m concerned if someone works less hours they should get paid less, particularly if their wages are being paid by the general public. Compressed hours yes why not, but 20% less working hours should not receive 100% pay. It’s ludicrous. We’re all working our backsides off! Why do the councils think we should pay full council tax for less service.

We might as well all go and work for the council.

We've had 15 years of pay freezes /below inflation pay rises. I would prefer to stick with 5 days and get a proper rebalancing pay rise but this does feel like a reasonable alternative if they can't afford a proper pay rise.