ACTU to propose four-day work week and reduced hours that won’t impact pay
A union is pushing for a massive overhaul for millions of workers in Australia, proposing shorter working hours and reducing the five-day work week.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) will propose a four-day work week and shorter hours - that won’t affect pay - in a bid to improve living standards.
Unions have also suggested sector-specific alternatives for businesses where it was not appropriate to reduce the work week and hours.
Other options include more rostered days off, lifting the amount of annual leave and “redesigning the roster to improve predictability, security and work-balance”.
Pay and conditions, such as penalty rates and overtime, would be protected to ensure a worker’s wage is not impacted.
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The ACTU will outline its proposal at the Economic Reform Roundtable next week, saying “workers deserve to benefit from productivity gains and technological advances”.
The union pointed to a recent published study of countries, including Australia, which have trialled a four-day work week over six months.
It found there was a lift in performance, a reduction in burnout and improved health and retention of workers from the 141 organisations and almost 3,000 employees involved.
It also cited a Swinburne University study in 2023 which trialled the 100:80:100 model.
In this model workers kept 100 per cent of what they would have been paid for five days from working 80 per cent of their hours as long as they maintained 100 per cent of their productivity.
Seven out of the 10 firms involved saw higher productivity.
Australians have been working “record-hours” since the Covid pandemic, leading to a productivity slump.
The Productivity Commission also flagged businesses had not made enough investment to improve efficiency.
Business groups will likely be opposed to the shorter hours and four-day work week.
It also comes after the Reserve Bank of Australia on Tuesday revised its future productivity expectations from 1 per cent down to 0.7 per cent year-on-year.
It means slower economic growth and smaller improvements to living standards for Aussies.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers dismissed suggestions it is an economic crisis, but the country is facing a producitivty challenge and that the government has a “big agenda” to address it.
“We’re working with the broader community on the next steps as well but that producitivity challenge... is not a challenge that’s emerged in the last couple of years, it’s been a feature of our economy for the last couple of decades - it’s a global challenge,” he said on Sky News.
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ACTU President Michele O’Neil said the four-day work week proposal and shorter hours will benefit both the employee and employer.
“They deliver improved productivity and allow working people to work more efficiently,” she said in a statement.
“Unions want all Australians to benefit from higher productivity - not just those with money and power.”
Ms O’Neil argued productivity growth did not translate to better living standards otherwise “the average worker today would be around $350 a week better off”.
“A fair go in the age of AI should be about lifting everyone’s living standards instead of just boosting corporate profits and executive bonuses,” she said.
Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek last month did not rule out a four-day work week.
“Well, we’ll listen to all views respectfully,” she said on Sunrise.
“The Treasurer’s roundtable on productivity, I think is a great way of bringing unions and businesses and other groups together to discuss how we can make our economy stronger and more productive.
“What we won’t be doing to improve productivity is ask people to work longer hours. We want to invest in our people, boost training, invest in technologies and new ways of working, make sure that we’re playing to our competitive advantages as a nation.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese previously said he wants to see practical measures put forward at the three-day event that have “broad support”.
Four-week trial a ‘resounding success’
The United Kingdom in 2022 trialled its largest four-week work involving 61 companies from different sectors and 2,900 workers.
Each company was able to tailor the policy to fit their business to ensure productivity and challenges were met, such as giving workers Fridays off.
Results showed almost four in ten employees were less stressed, one in seven suffered less burnout and anxiety, fatigue and sleep issues dropped.
Over 50 per cent said they found it easier to balance work and household responsibilities and were overall more satisfied with their finances, relationships and at how they managed time.
The study was a “resounding success”, with 56 of the companies continuing the four-day work week model and 18 of those saying it will become permanent.
The trial was held between June and December.
Shark Tank star and Canadian businessman Kevin O’Leary blasted the movement which has grown in popularity in France.
“That’s the stupidest idea I have ever heard,” he told Fox News in June.
“I think we should let the French go to a two-day work week and then kick their arse internationally.”
Mr O’Leary backs a traditional work week and the post-Covid new norms of working from home, saying 40 per cent of his staff work remotely.
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