Today on Radio 2 I heard that the Green party has a 4 day working week in their general election manifesto.
I am interested as to how this would work and be financed. I am contracted for a 5 day week, does that mean I would be stuck with that? Would I automatically change to a 4 day week? Would I automatically lose 20% of my salary or would I be paid overtime for day 5. Is there more chance I would get acknowledgement for all the extra hours I have to do anyway? Other full timers will be on 5.5 or 6 day contracts.
It sounds like a policy that hasn't been thought out, sounds like a vote winner to me too.
To ask practical questions though, what is the benefit for employers? Sounds like more legislation, more staff and lots of transition to me. What is the benefit to the country? We have unemployment but do we have enough unemployed with sufficient skills in the correct locations to fill the 20 to 33% additional roles, a bit of fag paper maths suggests we have nowhere near enough unemployed regardless of skill and location.
Still, a 4 day week sounds good from where I sit.