4 day week campaign gains momentum
Commenting from the UK Labour Party Conference, Labour Party Employment Affairs spokesperson, Ged Nash, has welcomed the British Labour Party’s proposals on a four day working week.
Senator Nash said:
“This week our colleagues in the British Labour Party through the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, John McDonnell, have committed to the reduction of the working week to a four day week.
“This is a very timely proposal from our friends in the UK, as the four day week campaign is set to launch in Ireland later this week.
“The UK Labour Party has called for a Working Time Commission to be established to look in detail at this proposal. I believe that an expert group should be convened here in Ireland to examine how a four day week could be achieved in an Irish context.
“The world of work is rapidly changing and with new technologies, workers are being made feel like they are expected to be constantly available to their employer.
“Instead of using tech to make our lives less work intensive, it seems the opposite is the case.
“With workers constantly being expected to be ‘on’, quality of work and productivity suffers. So too does health and well-being.
“Fórsa here in Ireland and the TUC in the UK have called for an exploration as to how a four day working week could be achieved and implemented.
“As the world of work changes beyond all recognition we have to look again at our working time laws and how we can ensure that working people work to live, rather than merely live to work.”