Unions are pushing a four-day work week. How would that work?

In perhaps the most concerted push of a change to working hours, the ACTU says it will use next week’s economic summit to call for a four-day week in sectors that can support it.

The ACTU argues that a shorter work week will mean workers can benefit from productivity gains and technological advances, and  that reducing working hours, from a standard five days a week, is key to lifting living standards.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday said he was open to suggestions to boost productivity at the summit and the government was ready for “big reform”.

What is the case for a four-day week and how could it work?

What are the benefits?

The ACTU announcement comes after a large-scale, peer-reviewed study earlier released in July found a four-day working week could reduce employee burnout and improve job satisfaction.

The six-month trials across 141 organisations in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Britain and the US found that the reduced work week (with no reduction in pay) significantly improved workers’ mental and physical health.

The improvement was not seen in 285 employees at the 12 control companies, which continued business as usual.

“The four-day week trial challenges the ideal worker norm that equates long hours with hard work and a strong work ethic, which could contribute to improved well-being,” the authors of the study published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour write.

Associate Professor Paula O’Kane, a researcher at New Zealand’s University of Otago, said that while the study centred on a four-day work week, “the broader implication was clear: Flexible and potentially individualised working arrangements can deliver similar benefits.”

O’Kane, who specialises in human resource management and was not involved in the study, said traditionally time spent working was used as a proxy for productivity.

“In fact, better rested and healthier people can be more productive in less time. The four-day week model in this study enhanced work ability, reduced sleep problems, and decreased fatigue – all of which contributed to the positive outcomes,” she said.

The four-day week had a surge in discourse post-Covid, helped along by another major employer Bunnings, which in 2023 backed the idea for some of its workers.

How would it work?

In 2024, workplace lawyer Scott Ritches pointed out there were multiple ways to achieve a four-day week.

“One is by simply cutting a day out of the week and reducing your work commitment to just four of the five days you once worked,” he wrote in The New Daily.

“In theory, and perhaps on paper, one upside to this is that the reduced hours worked by employees potentially more creates opportunities and more jobs for new staff,” he said.

“However, this often comes with a commensurate reduction in pay, and with the cost-of-living crisis still raging, it may not be welcomed by many.”

Riches said another method was by varying the number of hours worked each day to spread your previous five-day commitment across four days.

“For example, instead of working five eight-hour days, you might instead do a condensed four 10-hour days,” he said.

Yet another method was employed by a trial in 2022 encompassing 61 British businesses and about 2900 workers.

Research firm Autonomy released a report titled The Results are in: The UK’s Four-Day Week Pilot, the British “trial was a resounding success”, with 56 of the 61 companies involved maintaining their four-day weeks after it ended.

The report said the impact on business revenues “stayed broadly the same over the trial period, rising by 1.4 per cent on average, weighted by company size, across respondent organisations”.

In the 2022 UK trial, the model of four-day work used included varied approaches, with employees still receiving 100 per cent of their pre-trial pay.

That approach reflects a method referred to by advocate group 4 Day Week Global as the 100:80:100 model, in which employees generate 100 per cent of their output in 80 per cent of their time, for 100 per cent of their pay.

As well as many employees reporting less stress and reduced levels of burnout, 60 per cent of workers reported “an increased ability to combine paid work with care responsibilities”, along with “62 per cent [who] reported it easier to combine work with social life”.

The economic roundtable will focus on lifting productivity, bringing together representatives from business, unions and civil society in Canberra on Tuesday to Thursday.