Labor pushed on four-day week with full pay

The Albanese government should trial a four-day work week with people maintaining their full-time wage, according to sweeping policy proposals.

Greens senator Barbara Pocock. Picture: Keryn Stevens

The Albanese government should trial a four-day work week with people maintaining their full-time wage, according to sweeping policy proposals supported “in principle” by ALP senators and endorsed by Greens senators.

A landmark report by the Senate select committee on work and care backed a raft of industrial ­relations changes including paid parental leave up to 52 weeks and a right to disconnect from work outside paid hours.

The committee, chaired by Greens senator Barbara Pocock, recommended the federal government request the Fair Work Commission undertake a review of standard working hours with a view to reducing the standard working week. It recommends the government undertake a four-day-week trial based on the 100-80-100 model where employees retain 100 per cent of the salary while reducing their hours to 80 per cent and maintaining 100 per cent productivity.

It says the government should partner with an Australian university throughout the trial to measure the impact of a four-day week on productivity, health and wellbeing, workplace cultural change, and gender equality in the workplace as well as the impact on the distribution of unpaid care across genders. While not specifying the industries where it should be ­trialled, it says it should be implemented in diverse sectors and geographical locations.

Senator Pocock said “work-life balance is a remote dream for too many, ­especially those living the nightmare of last-minute shift changes which make finding care for loved ones or kids impossible”.

“We heard evidence from several employers, including one conducting a trial where workers maintain their full-time wage while working a four-day week, that giving workers greater control over their rosters can enhance productivity,” she said. “Without action, we are loading up women and carers, lowering their earnings, increasing their stress and leaving too many in poverty after a life-time of work and care.”

Responding to the proposal, ACTU secretary Sally McManus said: “The ACTU welcomes any suggestions that will help families, and especially women, balance work and care.”

In additional comments published with the report, ALP senators said while the recom­mendations contained within the report provide a “valuable contribution to policy debate and are supported in principle by the committee’s government senators, they do not reflect Australian government policy”.

The ALP senators said they “acknowledge the fiscal constraints of the moment”.

“Global conditions are putting significant pressure on the Australian economy,” it says. “Current ­interest rates, which are high due to global inflationary pressures, have resulted in increased interest payments on the debt which has been inherited from the former government. This fiscal reality necessarily imposes constraints on social policy.”

The report calls for a new right to care, alongside the right to work, and identifies access to paid sick leave as a first-order issue for working carers.

The committee recommends the government consider legislating an enforceable “right to disconnect” under the National Employment Standards, giving all workers a right to disconnect once their contracted working hours have finished. Under the proposal, employers would be restricted from communicating with workers outside of work hours, except in the event of an emergency or for welfare ­reasons.

The committee recommends the government increase penalties for employers who commit “wage theft through, for example, unpaid additional hours of work and consider changes to law that make these cases subject to criminal charges”.

It says the government should consider mechanisms to fund and implement a pathway to reach international best practice of 52 weeks of paid parental leave. Labor has committed to 26 weeks by 2026. “The government-­funded leave should be paid at least at the minimum full-time wage, with consideration given to encouraging employers to top up payments to full wage replacement,” it says.

Senator Pocock said Australia was mired in a work and care crisis which demanded “bold reform”.

“Australia is an international outlier in terms of our support for workers with caring responsibilities,” she said.

“We have slipped too far behind. And we are paying a price in labour supply, stressed workers, and gender inequality. It is time for a new social contract, fit for the 21st-century workforce.”