Brickbat: Four Days a Week

The British government plans to give workers the right to request a four-day work week. Under the proposal, workers would still have to work a 40-hour week. A government spokesperson said that employers would not be required to grant those requests. Joe Ryle, the director of the 4 Day Week campaign, welcomed the government's proposal as a first step, but he said his organization's ultimate goal is to reduce the number of hours worked each week.

Comments

[diver64]

What is this story? A worker has the right to request a 4 day work week and the employer has the right to say no? How is that different from day to day life.
As for working less hours, you have the right to do that. It's called part time work.

[Stupid Government Tricks]

In the US at least, anything over 8 hours a day is overtime, or something like that. 10 hours a day without getting overtime? Not a chance.

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

No, in the US (federal law) its 40 hours a week on standard hourly rate, then OT kicks in on anything over 40. You could work 2, 20 hour days in a week and never see OT per federal law.

[Stupid Government Tricks]

Thanks, didn't know that. But I'm in California, they might have their own 8 hour a day limit.

[MatthewSlyfield]

Several states have 8 hour day limits before needed to bay OT.

[psmoot]

Back in the day, none of these limits applied to salaried work. The way it was explained to me by a head of HR was the deal is "you do this defined set of work using however many hours you need and we'll pay you $X per month." I could work as many or as few hours as I wanted so long as I got my job done.

[Its_Not_Inevitable]

The story is government diktats, slippery slopes and camels noses.

[Fist of Etiquette]

A government spokesperson said that employers would not be required to grant those requests.

So essentially the Limeys are looking to codify this very narrow speech right. "You can ask the question, mate. You're welcome, innit."

[mad.casual]

They need to call it a Holiday Week or similar. Not because there's a Holiday at the end of the week or because the 3-day weekend is a vacation, or Holiday, as they refer to them, but because 4 day weeks are just called Holiday Weeks.

And 3-day weeks can be called French Weeks because the French are lazy.

[See.More]

From the link:

“So perhaps instead of working eight hours a day for five days, you work 10 hours a day for four days. So you’re still doing the same amount of work, but perhaps you’re doing it in a way that enables you, for example, to need less childcare, to spend more time with your family, to do other things, that encourages more people into the workplace, which is an enormous part of that growth mission.”

Forty hours over four, ten-hour days is not necessarily as productive as forty hours over five, eight-hour days. While the number of hours worked may be equivalent, the quality of hours worked may not.

[Its_Not_Inevitable]

And if we're considering on-site, brick-and-mortar places of work will the employers eventually be required to run night shifts to accommodate this? Or are we only talking about the pajama class? For now.

[John F. Carr]

Once I requested a 4 day 40 hour week and I got it. If I had been owed overtime for more than 8 hours in a day the answer would have been no.