One London mayoral candidate has a vote-winner: A four day week for all
An outsider challenger in the race to become London mayor wants the capital’s workers to enjoy a four-day week by 2030.
Rayhan Haque, a policy advisor and former member of the Labour Party, is running to depose Sadiq Khan in this May’s election.
And the prospective mayor told City PM this morning that he would create a unit of specialists within City Hall to “support any business to voluntarily test and adopt” the shorter working week.
The policy follows a trial of the four-day week by a host of businesses undertaken last year.
More than nine in ten of those in the trial continued with the four-day week – in which staff worked over four days of the week but were paid their full, five-day salary.
“Londoners love working. But they also love to live. And that’s why, as mayor, I will work to make London a trailblazing four-day week city by the end of this decade,” Haque (pictured below) told City PM this morning.
Employers have shown some willingness to adopt the reduced working pattern, with some hoping it would also encourage more staff to get back into the office.
A third of employers are more likely to consider cramming a week’s work into four days if staff came back to the office on a Monday, according to a survey of more than 10,000 employers by recruiters Hays.
Trailblazers of the four day week include Atom Bank, the fast-growing fintech.
The UK’s first app-based bank saw the jump in people applying for job vacancies in one week, shortly after it announced all employees could work 34 hours instead of the usual 37.5 hours over five days – with no pay cut.
Mark Mullen, chief executive of the digital lender, said that while it was “too early to declare victory”, results of the trial so far have been encouraging.
A survey of Atom’s staff also showed they are feeling less stressed, with 86% now looking forward to going to work each day, up from 77 per cent.