Department of Environment considers four-day working week for staff 

The Department of the Environment, overseen by Minister Eamon Ryan, is seeking proposals on the feasibility and implications of moving its staff to a four-day working week. Photo: Gareth Chaney/Collins Photos

The Department of the Environment is seeking proposals on the feasibility and implications of moving its staff to a four-day working week.

If adopted, it would become the first government department to fully endorse and implement the reduced working week and would send a signal to other sectors about the benefits of flexible working hours and work-life balance.

“Proposals for reduced working hours, such as a four-day work week have been proposed by a range of civil society actors as a viable model which could deliver social, economic and environmental benefits,” the Department has said.

The calls for a four-day working week have been gathering pace at home and abroad, with trade unions among those pushing for progress in this area.

Last year, Fórsa wrote to all local councils in Ireland urging them to engage with a four-day week pilot programme.

Supporters say the four-day week would increase productivity, wellbeing, job satisfaction and help the environment.

Pilot programme

In October, Four Day Week Ireland said that 17 companies had signed up to a pilot programme to trial the effectiveness of a four-day week for businesses.

These companies began trialling the measure for six months from last month.

One of the companies was Dundalk-based Soothing Solutions. 

Its chief executive Sinéad Crowther said: “A four-day working week will benefit staff by giving them more time to spend with their families or focusing on their passions, which we strongly believe will, in turn, result in greater productivity.” 

In a bid to conduct its own research into the topic, the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications in conjunction with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is seeking proposals from the research community on the social, economic and environmental implications of a move to a four-day week.

This research will contribute towards an evidence base against which any future related policy proposals can be evaluated.

"While reduced working hours options, such as pilot programmes centred on a transition to a four-day work week, have been conducted by public authorities and private enterprises in several jurisdictions, the potential for and impacts of such a transition have not yet been considered in the specific context of the Irish economy,” it said.

“Nor has the impact of a four-day week been considered relative to other potential measures in the Irish labour market, e.g., longer statutory right to leave, more public holidays, a statutory right to choose to work flexitime/reduced hours," the Department said.