Trade unions calls for a four-day working week
The TUC (Trade Union Congress) has called for the UK to adopt a four-day week, arguing that instead of helping to shorten the amount of time we spend at work, new technology is threatening to intensify working lives. The on-demand economy has meant packaging work into ever-smaller pieces of time, it argues, with a return to the days of piece-work, “creating a culture where workers are required to be constantly available to work.” Over 1.4 million people are now working on 7 days of the week, 3.3 million people work more than 45 hours a week and, in according to TUC polling, stress and long hours are workers’ biggest concerns after pay. Others still struggle to get the hours they need to fit with family life.
Addressing the TUC annual congress General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Workers are having a hard time. They’ve suffered the longest pay squeeze in 200 years. Millions of people are stuck in insecure jobs and stressed out. And too many employers are using tech to treat workers unfairly. Bosses and shareholders must not be allowed to hoover up all the gains from new tech for themselves. Working people deserve their fair share – and that means using the gains from new tech to raise pay and allow more time with their families.
“When the TUC’s first Congress took place 150 years ago, people worked ten hours a day with only Sunday off. But in the last century we won a two-day weekend and limits on long hours. This century, we must raise our sights to reduce working time again. If productivity gains from new technology are even half as good as promised, then the country can afford to make working lives better.”
“In the nineteenth century, unions campaigned for an eight-hour day. In the twentieth century, we won the right to a two-day weekend and paid holidays. So, for the twenty-first century, let’s lift our ambition again. I believe that in this century we can win a four-day working week, with decent pay for everyone.”
“It’s time to share the wealth from new technology. Not allow those at the top to grab it for themselves. Jeff Bezos owns Amazon – now a trillion-dollar company. He’s racking up the billions while his workers are collapsing on the job exhausted. We need strong unions with the right to go into every workplace – starting with Amazon’s warehouses here in the UK.”
Add your comment
- Administration 2
- Building Design, Planning, Development 1
- Catering 1
- Construction 19
- Contracts, Projects, Bids 13
- Energy Management 30
- Engineering, Maintenance 243
- Estates, Property 12
- Facilities Management (main) 169
- Hard Services 71
- Health & Safety 3
- Human Resources 2
- HVAC 84
- Management 4
- M&E 113
- Operations 44
- Procurement 1
- Sales & Marketing 1
- Security 1
- Soft Services 9
- Training 1
- Waste Management 1
- Workplace 3