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.

In my area LA workers are some of the best paid with T&Cs far superior to the mostly NMW workers. With poor educational and work opportunities many LA roles invariably go to 'better' experienced and qualified candidates that move here.

Unfortunately the DC and CC still manage to be shit.

After two days? My health’s just fine and none of your business. Any more and I’ll report your posts.

Absolutely. It doesn’t have to be a race to the bottom that some would like.

Great.

Sorry for caring. Back to the thread.

X marks the spot, I suspect.

Indeed.

And people wonder why council tax goes up and service goes down. This is a fucking ridiculous idea.

Do you seriously think if they worked a 6 day week council tax would reduce

Yes I know

Love your name!

And yes, it is an absurd idea.

I live about 10 or 15 miles north of South Cambridgeshire but I do know people who live in the area. To be frank they said that they haven't noticed any difference in services.

However, that does raise the question of whether the targets and outcomes were set at an appropriate level in the first place anyway.

My initial starting point would be that if a person could meet their targets in just four days of work then those targets were woefully low to begin with. But that's probably a much broader discussion that needs to happen.

Kemi Badenoch has announced that she would abolish inheritance tax on family homes if the Tories win the next election.

The Conservative leader told her party’s annual conference that she would legislate “so nobody will ever pay inheritance tax on their family home”.

Beautiful.

Above posted on wrong thread, apols.

No because I'd expect the staff to be paid for 6 days. Just like if they work 4 they should be paid for 4 days.

I agree with this and I work for a local authority.

I thought public sector would be the last to implement such a thing, so that's great for the staff. Almost feels like a reward for being unpaid in alot of areas compared to private sector counterparts.

My local authority can't stick to laws, deadlines etc in the supposed 5 days they currently work. One example is with a subject access request, it took them over 6 months to issue, with no updates in the interim. How would working 4 days make them follow policies etc and deliver to the timeframes?
I think we would need to know if this is all local authority workers, including bin men etc, or is it just office based?

Good

There's a few comments on here that the residents of South Cambs hate it and it's the worst thing ever...So my question is (as a resident of S Cambs) if so many people are against it why did Lib Dem win in the local elections back in May? They were the only party that supported it, every other party planned to scrap it.

You can't say you hate it then vote to keep it in place.

Why should you be paid for 4 days work if you are achieving 5 days work?

absenteeism decrease, so hours worked increase rather than decrease, staff turnover decreases so costs decrease rather than increase

They won't be achieving 5 days work. The only way that can happen is if shitty members of staff to begin with who put minimal effort in. Maybe its just a difference in public sector mentality?

Just fire the absentees rather than pander to them.

Who cares how many days bin men work as long as the bins are emptied?

I would love for everywhere to have 4 days weeks. I do long days anyway

Well, I remember a time when they were finding it impossible to recruit into the DP team at my LA, so were dependent on very expensive and unreliable locums and went months without anyone other than a part time admin covering an enormous inbox

Having attractive salary /work -life balance policies will make recruitment and retention easier meaning it is possible to have a staff member available to answer your SARs within the deadline.

I am sure your SAR was very much essential but we also used to get a lot of frivolous/over the top SARS and FOIs and this can eat hugely into a LA budget, particularly in a smaller one.

I found it ironic when our frequent correspondents to the DP/FOI team then complained about wasting tax payers money . They are important rights but shouldn't be abused as they use an awful lot of officer time