Uniqlo to trial four-day work week

IT’S a work perk we can all get behind. Clothing retailer Uniqlo is trialling an arrangement that’s sure to be the envy of every working person.

IT’S a work perk we can all get behind.

Clothing retailer Uniqlo is trialling a four-day work week for its employees from October — but there’s a catch.

Japanese company Fast Retailing, which owns Uniqlo, Theory and J Brand, is offering a four-day work week to one fifth of its workforce, or 10,000 employees, provided they work 10-hour days, Bloomberg reports.

If the trial goes well, it will consider expanding the program to its corporate headquarters and more stores. Fast Retailing is offering the perk to its employees in a bid to retain fulltime talent, many of whom cut down to part-time to care for elderly parents.

Japan has a notoriously crushing work culture and the move appears to be an attempt to introduce a new kind of flexibility.

According to CNN, 43 per cent of US companies already offer a four-day work week to their employees. “We recognise it’s a win-win for the company and the employees,” KPMG director of workplace solutions Barbara Wankoff told CNN.

“Their satisfaction goes way up when they have control over their time. And it increases employee morale and productivity and retention.”

Uniqlo US chief executive Larry Meyer told Bloomberg earlier this year that the company is focused on the “high cost of losing talent”.

“If people are happy, the retention rate is high,” he said. “If not, the retention rate is low.”