The concept of a four-day working week is not a new one. Campaigners have been promoting the idea of a shorter working week for many years. Ahead of the Scottish Election in 2021, Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister, announced a £10 million fund to allow companies to pilot and explore the benefits of a four-day working week. Similarly, across the border, Labour introduced plans for a 32-hour working week with no loss of pay in their 2019 General Election manifesto.

A pressure group, 4 Day Week Campaign, has criticised the standard 9 to 5, five-day working week as outdated and no longer fit for purpose. A recent poll carried out by Survation reported that 64% of Britons would support the introduction of a four-day working week with no reduction in pay. The pandemic has influenced and accelerated changes in working practices, most notably the increase in many employers adopting hybrid working arrangements. It is therefore not surprising that the support for a four-day working week has gathered momentum against this backdrop as employees strive for a better work-life balance.

4 Day Week Campaign will be running a six-month pilot programme in the UK starting in June 2022, alongside similar pilot schemes in Ireland, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The pilot is being coordinated by 4 Day Week Global alongside the think-tank Autonomy and researchers at Cambridge University, Oxford University and Boston College. The pilot has seen an increasing number of UK companies signing up with more expected to follow suit. 

We are still a way away from a four-day working week replacing the standard Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 across the board (if that ever happens). However, some employers will be starting to think about the practical realities of moving to a four-day working week. Here are a few of the key considerations.

Changing contracts

Once an employment contract is made, both the employer and employees are bound by its terms and, subject to some exceptions, neither party can make any changes without the consent of the other party. Naturally, changing the terms of an employment contract (e.g. working hours) will require making amendments to the employee's contract, which they will need to agree. If an organisation chooses to adopt a four-day working week on reduced hours with no reduction in pay, amending the terms of the contract to reflect the working hours should not present a problem as this will more than likely be agreed by the employee. It is likely that most employers would want to pilot the scheme for themselves before moving to a permanent four-day working week. Where that is the case, the employer will need to be clear that the contractual change is temporary and that, at the end of that period, the working week will return to normal unless confirmed otherwise in writing. Employers should be sure that they actually undertake a regular review, and do not let temporary arrangements roll over – this might unintentionally create a contractual entitlement to a four-day working week.

Change in pay and productivity

The notion of a four-day working week is closely followed by the fear of working longer hours each day to compensate for the missing day. Employees may also fear that it will lead to a loss in pay – and that, essentially, they will end up working five days in four and be paid less for it. It is therefore likely to be welcome news to employees that the Campaign calls for no reduction in pay. If employers do want to reduce pay, this may be a barrier for employees, making it difficult to obtain their consent.

Some employers' resistance to the pilot is founded on concerns of decreased levels of output, thereby affecting the organisation's profits. However, previous trials have indicated that this may not be an issue. For example, Iceland has been spearheading this movement since 2015. Between 2015 and 2019, two large-scale trials were piloted without a reduction in pay. The trials were hailed to be a success, with reporting participants maintaining the same level of performance and productivity. These findings are supported by a trial study of the four-day working week carried out by New Zealand based company, Perpetual Guardian. The study also found some of the world's most productive countries, such as the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Germany, on average work around 27 hours a week. Advocates for the four-day working week argue that the productivity boost will pay for the shorter working week. 

Dealing with holiday entitlement

Employees are legally entitled to 5.6 weeks' paid holiday a year (which equates to 28 days inclusive of bank holidays for employees working a five-day week). This can be prorated for part-time employees, so someone working four days a week would be entitled to 22.4 days a year (inclusive of bank holidays). Of course, employers can choose to offer more than the statutory minimum and it is common for organisations to offer additional holiday to their employees depending on their length of service. 

During the trial period, the 4 Day Week Campaign anticipates holiday allowances will remain the same but employers may not be willing to sustain this should the four-day working week be implemented permanently. The 4 Day Week Campaign suggests holiday allowances would need to be reduced in line with the overall reduction in working hours. For those who now work five days a week, this would translate to a 20% reduction in holiday allowance. This may be considered a reasonable trade-off for an extra day off each week with no adverse impact to their pay.

What to do with people who already work four days a week?

Of course, some employees already work four days a week. In most cases, their pay will already be apportioned to reflect their working days. Therefore, theoretically speaking, given the Campaign is advocating no reduction in pay, employees who want to reduce their working week from four days to three days may seek to do so with the consent of their employer with no change to their pay. Employers may find this approach problematic, as this arrangement will result in reduced workforce availability, thereby affecting the organisation's output and profit.

This also leads to another dilemma: how will an organisation deal with the hours and salaries of part-time employees? The 4 Day Week Campaign proposes four options:

• increase the pay of staff on part-time hours to adjust for hourly increases in pay arising from the reduction in working time; 
• reduce the hours of people working part-time in line with reductions other employees will go through; 
• adjust annual leave entitlement to recognise the large uplift created by a four-day working week; or
• a combination of the above.

As with many things, there is not a one-size-fits-all model. The results of the pilot should hopefully provide guidance on how employers can approach this situation. 

Is the four-day working week the future?

It very much remains to be seen whether employers will begin to adopt the four-day working week on a permanent basis, or whether, ultimately, there might be a change in the law to reflect this. At the moment, we are a very long way from that and it is for employers to determine the approach they want to take based on what is best for their business. If an increasing number of employers do move to adopt it, without corresponding reductions in pay, this might lead to others in the same industry gradually following suit to try to address potential recruitment and retention gaps between them and their competitors. A four-day working week might be the direction of travel, but for most this is likely to be long into the future.