Four-day week will let workers 'share benefits of new technology'

Four Day Week Ireland says reduced working time is "better for business, better for workers, better for women, and better for the environment".

A leading trade union is pushing ahead with a pilot project it hopes will lead to the introduction of a four-day week for all employees in the private, public and community sectors. 

Public service trade union Fórsa is seeking employers to take part in the project, which it says will not impact on company performance or productivity.  

The 80,000-strong union has also called for the implementation of remote-working as a permanent feature of the workforce and other arrangements, which would improve work-time flexibility “to the benefit of workers, employers and the economy”.

Members have also backed the union’s call for an increase in the number of public holidays, with Ireland having the lowest number in the EU, at nine.

A motion put forward by the union’s national executive called for working time and patterns to be reformed in light of the Covid-19 crisis.

Fórsa has played a leading role in 4DWI (Four Day Week Ireland), a coalition of businesses, unions, environmentalists, academics and NGOs established to campaign for shorter working time in all sectors of the economy.

The coalition, which was launched last year, says reduced working time is "better for business, better for workers, better for women, and better for the environment".

Speaking at the conference, the union’s vice-president Eugene Gargan said automation and other new technologies were set to erode “vast volumes” of routine work.

As automation increases productivity, reduced working time without loss of pay is the means of sharing the benefits of new technology and sharing the available work. 

"The same thing happened in previous technological revolutions, which led to reduced working time. This proposal is an imaginative and realistic response to the radical changes that are occurring in technology, work organisation, and working time,” he said.

A survey on remote working, conducted by Amarách Research last summer, revealed that 86% of respondents were interested in working remotely. Over 80% of these said their preference would be for a hybrid arrangement.

Fórsa also said a realistic approach to a new public service agreement does not mean ruling out pay improvements.

The union’s general secretary Kevin Callinan said any successor to the current public service pay deal would have to be realistic, but this didn’t mean ruling out pay improvements over the lifetime of a deal.

“All the economic projections point to a rapid economic and fiscal bounce-back once the Covid situation stabilises, and we have cause to hope that will start to happen in the coming months,” he said.

If we give people hope, we will also give them confidence to spend and participate in the economy and in their communities. 

"This is the lifeblood that can quickly rejuvenate businesses be they large, medium or small. 

"It’s the route to rapid employment, economic and fiscal recovery, which must be grasped in all sectors of the economy — public, private and community,” he said.

Speaking after the event, a spokesperson for Fórsa said there were a couple of hundred delegates at the event.

“All of the feedback so far seems to have been quite positive. It's as much about acknowledging the fact that the world is changing and looking at how what direction that might go.”