Britain's parliament will have the right to adopt a four-day working week after the government dropped concerns raised when the Conservatives were in power.
South Cambridgeshire District Council has imposed a four-day working week for more than a year after a controversial 15-month trial in March showed staff performance had largely improved or remained the same. It has ignored Conservative opposition to the policies it introduces. At the same time the council saved more than £370,000 a year.
The Labor government has decided not to reissue the 'best price notices' sent to Lib Dem-led councils by the Department for Standards, Housing and Communities in November 2023 and March 2024. The notice alerted the council that the government had concerns. Neglecting its legal duty to provide a continuously improved service to taxpayers, the council was forced to submit around 200 pieces of raw data to the government each week.
Those concerns have now been dropped by the newly renamed Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government, which said on Friday that although it is not government policy to support a “general transition” to a four-day working week, parliament “There is a fair responsibility,” he said. For managing and organizing your company's employees. ”
Transport for London is drawing up plans to allow Tube drivers to start working an average of four days a week from next year.
In a letter seen by the BBC, TfL told the Aslef union that it would share initial proposals for an average four-day working week in January.
Last Tuesday, the Metro Drivers Union called off a two-day strike over wages.
The decision was welcomed by the Four Days a Week campaign. Director Joe Lyle said: “It's a win-win for us to work four days a week without reducing pay.” “With 50% more free time, [it] Giving people the freedom to live happier, more fulfilling lives. ”
He said a court case in South Cambridgeshire had shown that workers working four days a week were happier, and that councils were better off hiring permanent workers for “hard-to-fill positions”. He said the experiment would save the City Council hundreds of thousands of jobs because it was deemed easy. lb.
Approximately 450 administrative staff and garbage collectors participated in the trial. Found:
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Staff turnover was reduced by 39%, contributing to annual savings of £371,500, primarily in agency staff costs.
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Applications for regular household planning were decided about a week and a half early.
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Approximately 15% more major planning application decisions were completed within reasonable timescales.
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The time it takes to process housing benefit and council tax benefit claim changes has been reduced.
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Mr Lyle said the deal between Aslef and TfL was “a huge win for Tube drivers and passengers alike”. “Happy, healthy, experienced drivers are what we need on Metro,” he said. “The 9-to-5, five-day work week was invented 100 years ago and is no longer fit for purpose. It is overdue for an update.”
Bridget Smith, leader of South Cambridgeshire District Council, said the trial results “painted a very positive picture with many improvements in services”. This, along with the hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money we have saved, has resulted in improved recruitment and retention rates, as well as incredibly big positives in terms of health and wellbeing. ”
TfL said there would be “no reduction in contract times” and that any changes would have to “benefit both parties, such as maintaining or improving the reliability of our services to customers and improving efficiency”.
