Yahoo Finance Major 4-day work week development for thousands
The ACT will be the first jurisdiction in Australia to move towards a four-day work week.
Thousands of public servants could soon enjoy a four-day work week, after the ACT government agreed in principle to trial the shorter week.
Earlier this month, the government agreed to set up a working group in 2024 to create a roadmap for a four-day work week trial. The trial will see ACT public servants work reduced hours, with no cut to their pay or conditions.
The ACT government said it was mindful of the “clear benefits” a four-day working week would provide but acknowledged it “poses challenges”.
Do you have a story to share? Contact tamika.seeto@yahooinc.com
“Whilst productivity may increase, it may not increase sufficiently or with enough longevity to fund the model in the longer term,” it said.
“Further, staffing in many frontline areas will most likely have to increase to ensure adequate roster cover and ensure service delivery is maintained.”
The trial is set to cover administrative and frontline employees, as well as full-time and non-full-time employees. Private organisations will also have the opportunity to participate voluntarily in the trial.
RELATED
Aussie companies trial 4-day weeks
A number of Aussie companies are already trialing four-day work weeks for their staff. In October, Medibank announced it was launching a six-month trial for 250 of its nearly 4,000 employees.
Like the ACT government proposal, Medibank is basing the trial on the 100:80:100 model, where employees maintain 100 per cent of their pay, reduce their working hours to 80 per cent, while maintaining 100 per cent productivity.
The health insurer said the trial would give employees the “gift of time to do anything that brings them joy”, in return for them removing “low-value work” from their work day.
Other organisations including Oxfam, Unilever and Bunnings are also running their own four-day work week trials. Bunnings, however, is trialing the “compressed” model, where full-time employees have the option to work 38 hours over four days.
The ACT government considered different models for the four-day work week, including reduced-hours models, the compressed-hours model and hybrid model. It settled on the reduced-hours model.
This was also the preferred model for 4 Day Work Week Global, which ran a six-month trial of a four-day week for 26 Australian organisations in August 2022.
It found 95 per cent of organisations favoured the reduced schedules, with companies reporting “great satisfaction” with business productivity, performance and the ability to attract employees.
Companies also saw a 44 per cent reduction in absenteeism and 9 per cent reduction in resignations. Employees were also in favour of the change, with 96 per cent wanting it to continue post-trial.
Follow Yahoo Finance on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter, and subscribe to our free daily newsletter.
