Sir Keir Starmer is facing the prospect of a House of Commons revolt after Labour MPs called for a four-day working week to be part of an overhaul of workers’ rights.
A dozen Labour MPs and a Green MP want the Government to set up a body to look at bringing in a four-day working week for employees across Britain.
The backbenchers are supporting an amendment to the Employment Rights Bill which, if successful, would create a panel of experts to consider proposals.
The panel would then provide advice on ‘how a transition could be made from a five-day working week to a four-day working week with no impact on pay’.
The Employment Rights Bill is currently going through the Commons and is being spearheaded by Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner.
It includes a swathe of new protections for workers, such as a ban on zero hours contracts, an end to ‘fire and rehire’ tactics, and greater rights to sick pay and flexible working.
But the Tories have warned the ‘French-style’ laws will be bad for the economy and put jobs at risk by burdening firms with more regulations.
Downing Street this afternoon signalled it would reject the amendment on a four-day working week tabled by the group of MPs.
Sir Keir Starmer is facing the prospect of a House of Commons revolt after Labour MPs called for a four-day working week to be part of an overhaul of workers’ rights
A dozen Labour MPs and a Green MP want the Government to set up a body to look at bringing in a four-day working week for employees across Britain
Supporters of new working patterns say people are happier and less likely to suffer from burnout when they work fewer days
A No10 spokesman said: ‘Our plans on the Employment Rights Bill are set out in public and there is no deviation from that.
‘In general terms, it’s not Government policy to support a general move to a four-day working week for five days working pay.’
Supporters of new working patterns say people are happier and less likely to suffer from burnout when they work fewer days.
Peter Dowd, the Labour MP who put forward the amendment, said that with technology like AI enabling people to work more efficiently, the benefits ‘must be passed back to workers’.
‘A four-day, 32-hour working week is the future of work and I urge my party to back this amendment so we can begin a much wider transition,’ he added.
Maya Ellis, Labour MP for Ribble Valley, said: ‘Data shows that working four days leads to greater productivity than five.
‘That means in public organisations for example, that we can get through a higher volume of tasks, creating the increase in capacity we so desperately need to see in our public services.’
But the amendment has been tabled at a time when many firms are forcing their employees to return to their offices full-time.
US investment bank JP Morgan and tech giant Amazon have demanded staff come back to the office every day despite having allowed hybrid working patterns for the last five years since the Covid pandemic.
And former Asda and Marks & Spencer chief executive Lord Stuart Rose claimed last month that remote working does not amount to ‘proper work’.
The 4 Day Week Foundation’s campaign, by contrast, aims to promote people’s wellbeing over hours spent at work.
Joe Ryle, campaign director of the 4 Day Week Foundation, said: ‘Compressing the same amount of hours into four days rather than five is not the same thing as a true four-day working week.
‘What is missing from the Bill is a commitment to explore a genuinely shorter working week which we know workers desperately want.
‘As hundreds of British companies and one local council have already shown, a four-day week with no loss of pay can be a win-win for both workers and employers.’
But Elliot Keck, of TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Taxpayers are sick of paying through the nose for an increasingly part-time public sector. Rather than standing on the side of workers, many in Labour are on the side of shirkers who are fleecing the public.’
