‘Completely unrealistic’: Four-day Aussie work week seemingly a long way off

Corporations are getting good results with four-day work weeks, but the prospect of such a change Australia-wide seems unlikely.

Four-day work weeks are a long way off in Australia judging by comments from key business and union figures.

At the National Press Club on Wednesday, Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) and Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) executives faced off in a classic workers versus business debate.

The respectful affair showed, despite some international companies trialling and implementing four-day work weeks, the prospect of such a widespread change in Australia was a long way from reality.

“There has been positive impact, but you are right in saying one size does not fit all,” ACTU president Michele O’Neil said.

“It is not something that you can pick up and say ‘This works in this industry in exactly the same way as this sector or industry’.”

Australian business and union figures agree implementing four-day work weeks would be industry dependent. Picture: NewsWire / John Gass

The chamber of commerce boss was adamant that legislating a four-day work week would not be beneficial.

“We are not in a position where we can agree to National Employment Standards for five (extra) days annual leave per year or a four-day working week. When you think about that, the impact that would have across the effectiveness for small and medium-sized businesses across Australia, it is completely unrealistic,” ACCI chief executive Andrew McKellar said.

This week, the Greens announced a push for permanent four-day work weeks as a major string in their election campaign bow. Citing burnout and demands for better work/life balance, the party unveiled a policy costing, which would create a national test case through the Fair Work Commission and establish a National Institute for the Four Day Work Week.

At the press club on Wednesday, the union executive said there were promising examples.

ACTU president Michele O'Neil says workers and companies are benefiting from four-day work weeks. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“The four-day week is something that is being trialled in different sectors and industries and businesses here in Australia and around the world, and there has been some really positive signs … where it is being done properly in consultation with workers and their unions,” Ms O’Neil said.

“It is important that we keep changing, that we realise that the modern world is different … it is not our view that it should be a blanket approach. We need to do the tests and carefully adjust by industry.”

Mr McKellar said some industries had already shortened their working weeks by stealth.

“You take me back for a moment to my time as a student … I noticed, after a little while, that strangely there were no lectures on Monday, and there were no tutorials on Friday,” he said.

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Andrew McKellar says legislating shortened work weeks is unrealistic. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“So, pretty clearly, those canny academics had worked things out pretty well.”

The ACCI does not support legislating four-day work weeks, instead urging businesses to make their own decisions.

“What are the standard working hours, what delivers the best outcomes for those individual enterprises, that should be with the enterprise, and we do not seek to tell individual businesses what they should do to run their own business,” Mr McKellar said.

The chamber of commerce supported businesses negotiating with employees if business objectives and productivity were met, he said.

Globally, workers report being happier doing four-day weeks, and multiple large trials have found boosts in productivity. Picture: NewsWire / Nikki Short

Mr McKellar flagged the chamber’s concern with four-day work weeks being legislated in the National Employment Standards.

“The issue here that we are seeing is with various unions bringing forward proposals, whether it be for an additional week of annual leave or whether it be a four-day working week or something else, are these going to be part of the National Employment Standards?” he said.

“Are they going to be, as Michele says, one size fits all, and we should say certainly they should not.

“That is the fundamental approach that we support, but that is not something that should be imposed right across the board universally.”

Australian businesses partaking in various individual and collective trials of shortened work weeks are reporting higher staff satisfaction levels.

In 2019, Microsoft Japan introduced a four-day working week and reported a 40 per cent boost in productivity.

In 2022, a large-scale UK trial involved 73 companies and 3300 employees; about half of respondents said productivity improved either slightly or significantly.

The renewed debate around four-day work weeks also comes as multinationals and some of Australia’s largest companies wind back pandemic-era work-from-home allowances.

Originally published as ‘Completely unrealistic’: Four-day Aussie work week seemingly a long way off