Union research shows major support for shorter hours, including 4-day working week

The Institute of Employment Rights surveyed 2,400 workers in these key manufacturing sectors and found nine out of ten workers are in favour of working shorter hours including a four-day week.

Tony Burke is the President of the Confederation of Shipbuilding And Engineering Unions

A new report commissioned by the UK’s Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions (CSEU) and produced by the Institute Of Employment Rights shows a majority of workers in the shipbuilding, automotive, engineering and metalworking industries back shorter working hours, including a four-day working week without a loss in pay.

The Institute of Employment Rights surveyed 2,400 workers in these key manufacturing sectors and found nine out of ten workers are in favour of working shorter hours including a four-day week.

CSEU said the main benefit cited by this report was having a better work-life balance and improved mental and physical health.

Ian Waddell, the General Secretary of the CSEU, said: “The Covid pandemic has caused a huge shift in the attitudes of workers to the time they spend at work and the balance with the rest of their lives outside of work.

“This report should give the trade union movement the confidence to launch full-throttled campaigns for a step change in working time with no reduction in pay.

“It is over 30 years since the last substantial reduction in working time. Productivity has increased exponentially since then but the rewards have not been shared equally with workers. A reduction in working time with no loss of pay is long overdue.”

The CSEU has also been involved in research work on working time not just in the UK but also in other countries in Europe.

For the Labour Party the results of the survey and research need to be grasped as one of the ways of modernising the UK economy and improving productivity as well as countering the Government’s proposals to deregulate working time.

Despite promising greater flexibility and the right of workers to ask their boss for family friendly working hours, the government has done nothing to promote the benefits of working shorter hours.

They are also proposing scrapping the Working Time Regulations which protect workers from being forced by unscrupulous employers to work long hours, guarantees paid holiday entitlement as well as guaranteeing rest breaks during and between shifts at work.

Picture credit: MTA-Creative Commons

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