Councillors back proposal for introduction of four-day working week for Dublin City Council

More research into the implications of a four-day working week has been undertaken both in Ireland and abroad in recent weeks and months.

Dublin City Council has passed a motion which would see a four-day working week introduced for council staff.

The proposal also called for the local authority to begin piloting the reduced timetable to the council’s 6,000 or so employees.

The plan, put forward by Labour councillor Kevin Donoghue, received unanimous backing from all 63 councillors at the meeting.

"Directly, it would affect a lot of the workers on Dublin City Council, but I have a view that it would affect the entire community,” he told Newstalk.

"For the families of those workers, I would be hopeful that it would go some way towards addressing significant gender imbalances that exist, say in the likes of caring responsibilities.

"But it also gives people a chance to be more involved in their local community." 

Cllr Donoghue said the Covid-19 pandemic had illustrated that changes to working could be successfully introduced, and studies from abroad had shown that a four-day week was feasible.

The proposal would affect Dublin City Council's roughly 6,000 employees. File Picture

“Companies are talking now about doing things that would have been unimaginable a year ago,” he said.

I'd like to see Dublin City Council leading the way on this. 

Indeed, more research into the implications of a four-day working week has been undertaken both in Ireland and abroad over the past few months.

Last month, the Government announced it was seeking proposals from the research community on the economic, environmental and social impact of the introduction of a four-day working week in Ireland.

The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, as well as the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications formally opened a call for research submissions on July 1.

Up to €150,000 was made available to support the research.

In Iceland, the world’s largest-ever trial of a four-day working week recently concluded.

Just over 1% of the Icelandic population took part in the study in Reykjavik, which saw their working week reduced to a duration of 35 to 36 hours, with no reduction in pay.

Researchers found the trial to be an “overwhelming success” with workers reporting boosted productivity and wellbeing. 

At the same time, feelings of stress and burnout were reduced.

It is understood that trade unions in Iceland have already begun to negotiate plans for reduced working hours on a wider scale.