Victoria’s public servants pushing for four-day working week

A proposal by Victoria’s public servants for a four-day working week has been mocked by Herald Sun readers. See the reactions.

Victoria’s public service union is pushing for a four-day working week and bigger pay rises.

A push by public servants to launch a four-day working week has been mocked.

The Community and Public Sector Union is lobbying political parties ahead of the November poll over what it describes as key issues for the public service.

They have sent out a survey about these topics and will publish their responses in full to its tens of thousands of members.

Among the key questions being asked is whether the next party to form government will agree to pilot a four-day working week for the public service, but Herald Sun readers have reacted with some colourful feedback.

“How about public servants work four days a week as bureaucrats and are forced to work one day a week for free as hospital orderlies to help clear the hospital backlog,” one user said.

There are calls to pilot a four-day working week for the public service. Picture: David Crosling

Another said the “service I’ve seen from public servants indicates they already work a three-day week, are they now asking to work more days?”.

One reader said they didn’t think low-level employees would be able to make the system work.

“I work in local government and there is no way I could drop to a four-day week!” they wrote.

“Might be OK for ‘management level’, where there seems to be an excess but at the ‘worker bee’ level there is no way!”

Another user chimed in with a joke:

“Question: Why don’t public servants look out the window in the morning?

“Answer: Because they’d have nothing to do in the afternoon.”

But the idea did have some support.

“I would have no problem with their flexible working hours arrangements allowing a four-day week (currently, I believe, it allows for a nine-day fortnight) because they would make up the time over four days,” one user wrote.

Under the proposal, employees would work reduced hours with the expectation that the amount of work they do remains unchanged.

Alternatives proposed include a 19 day month or an extra week of annual leave.

“Our members deserve to know what type of employer to expect for the next four years,” a CPSU spokesman said.

“CPSU has written seeking the views of all major political parties prior to the state election on issues that are the heart of the employment relationship between a government and its workforce so our members can choose their employer.”

The union will also ask parties if they would “commit to maintaining flexible work options for the Victorian public service and wider sector staff”.

Victorian Labor had been considering a four-day work week for public servants as part of its policy platform, with the proposal included in a draft version of the document.

But this platform is not yet official policy and the government has since walked back the idea.

Industry Support Minister Ben Carroll said at the time there were “no plans” to change the working week and described it as a policy draft.

Reason Party leader Fiona Patten has backed a pilot of a four-day week. Picture: David Crosling

The idea has gained popularity following the pandemic, with trials in the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Iceland.

Earlier this year, Reason Party leader Fiona Patten also backed a pilot.

“Governments and businesses the world over have been trialling a four-day working week and finding it boosts productivity and profits, saves non-wage costs and reduces absenteeism caused by physical and mental ill health,” she said at the time.

The CPSU will also push both major parties to lift the public service wage cap, urging them to “actually bargain” under new industrial relations laws.

The current cap on wage increases is 1.5 per cent and the government is reviewing this decision after inflation figures surged

But a new policy unlikely to be finalised before the election.

Other requests included a commitment for 26 weeks paid parental leave for both parents and new laws to make WorkSafe independent from public service department employers.

This would mean the agency reported directly to parliament