100 UK businesses agree to a permanent four-day work week with the same pay
A total of 100 UK companies have signed up for a permanent four-day working week with no loss of salary payments to their employees in order to change Britain’s approach to work. These 100 companies with 2,600 employees hope to lead a major shift in Britain’s approach to work because the group believes that the five-day workweek is a relic of a bygone era.
They also claimed that the four-day approach would increase their productivity, allowing them to produce the same amount of work in fewer hours. Atom Bank and Awin are the two largest companies that have signed up for the four-day week campaign. Earlier this year, a total of 70 UK firms conducted a trial run of a four-day workweek with no pay cut. For six months, thousands of workers from a local fish and chip shop to large financial firms participated in the pilot scheme.
The program was organized in collaboration with researchers from Cambridge University, Oxford University, and Boston College by the non-profit 4 Day Week Global, Autonomy, a think tank, and the 4 Day Week UK Campaign. During the trial, employees are paid in full for 80% of the hours they would normally work, with the goal of increasing productivity. In many countries, calls to reduce the work week have gained traction in recent years as a result of the pandemic. As thousands of employees switched to remote work during Covid-19, reducing onerous commuting time and costs, calls for greater flexibility grew louder.
According to researchers, similar trials of a four-day week in Iceland were an “overwhelming success,” leading to many workers moving to shorter hours. Between 2015 and 2019, workers were paid the same amount for working fewer hours in trials.
