Give workers the right to demand a four-day week with no pay cut, say unions and MPs

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The government should give workers the legal right to demand a four-day working week from their employer without loss of pay, MPs and unions have demanded.

This comes as businesses across the country pilot or transition to a four-day week, amid emerging evidence it's good for productivity and staff well-being.

< p>In a letter to business minister Kevin Hollinrake, MPs and trade unionists said the five-day week was 'no longer fit for the needs of the 21st century', having been created over 100 years ago for an 'unrecognizable' industrial and agricultural economy.

Signers of the letter include John McDonnell, the former Shadow Chancellor, Caroline Lucas, the Green MP, and Mark Serwotka, the General Secretary of the Services Union public and commercial (PCS).

It is also so Held by TUC Rights Officer Kate Bell, and Peter Dowd, Labor MP for Bootle, who introduced a private member's bill which would enshr under the law if passed.

Employees already have the right to request flexible working under the Flexible Working Regulations 2014 and ministers are now being asked to update these rules to cover a four-day week without loss of pay.

Under existing rules, bosses must deal with flexwork requests in a "reasonable" way, usually by weighing the pros and cons of the application.

These demands may include the right to work from home, to compress existing hours into a certain number of days, or to do their job on "flex time".

A true four-day week differs from compressed hours, which instead force workers to work longer days to compensate.

This comes after The Independent reported on Monday that more than 100 companies had already moved to a four-day working week.

The campaign the 4-day week, which advocates for changing working patterns, has accredited dozens of companies.

To be accredited, companies must prove that they have actually reduced working hours by their staff rather than simply condensing the same number of hours into fewer days.

The signatories to the letter say the Covid-19 pandemic "has shown us that the future of work can and must be different if we want to create a model that is better suited to the needs of families, women and caregivers".

"Numerous studies around the world have shown that a...