UK Workers Could Soon Demand Four-Day Working Week From Boss Under New Government Plans

UK workers could soon be given the legal right to request a four day working week under proposed plans from the new Labour government.

If implemented, the proposals will see UK employees given the right to ask to work their weekly contracted hours over a four day period rather than five - although whether the request will be accepted or not will be at the discretion of employers.

A spokesperson for the Department for Business and Trade told the BBC that they hoped the four-day working week concept would 'increase productivity' and help to get more people 'back in to work'.

A Whitehall spokesperson said: “We have no plans to impose a four-day working week on employers or employees. Any changes to employment legislation will be consulted on, working in partnership with business.

“Our Make Work Pay plan is designed around increasing productivity and creating the right conditions for businesses to support sustained economic growth.”

They added: “Many employers already provide good, family-friendly conditions for their workers because they know that doing so improves morale and retention.

“We are working in close partnership with business and civil society to find the balance between improving workers’ rights while supporting the brilliant businesses that pay people’s wages.”

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More details about the scheme are expected to be revealed within the Government's first 100 days in office, which comes after Labour promised it would ban zero-hour contracts in a document titled 'Labour’s Plan To Make Work Pay'; released just two days after the 2024 general election was called by former PM, Rishi Sunak.

In response to the four-day working week proposal, Conservative shadow business secretary Kevin Hollinrake said that businesses were 'petrified' about the plans.

Mr Hollinrake said: “Despite warning after warning from industry, [Deputy Prime Minister] Angela Rayner is pressing ahead with her French-style union laws that will make doing business more expensive in the UK.”

Labour's education minister, Baroness Jacqui Smith, dismissed reports that businesses would be forced to accept employee's demands for a four-day week.

Speaking on LBC Radio, she said: “We think that flexible working is actually good for productivity.

“So the four-day week that I know is on the front of quite a lot of newspapers today, what we’re actually talking about there is the type of flexible working that enables you to use compressed hours.

“So perhaps instead of working eight hours a day for five days, you work 10 hours a day for four days. You’re still doing the same amount of work, but perhaps you’re doing it in a way that enables you, for example, to need less childcare, to spend more time with your family, to do other things, that encourages more people into the workplace, which is an enormous part of that growth mission.”