A group of Labour MPs are calling for the UK government to include a four-day working week as part of the Employment Rights Bill.
An amendment to the Bill has been put forward by Peter Dowd, Labour MP for Bootle, to create a Working Time Council which could make recommendations on how the UK could move away from a five-day working week.
Kevin Fitzgerald, UK Managing Director at Employment Hero, said: “While a four-day work week might be manageable for large corporations with abundant resources, it poses serious risks for SMEs. What’s often overlooked is the fundamental difference in operational resilience and business continuity between big and small businesses. The government should tread very carefully before making this the new ‘standard’ for workplaces. Even if SMEs are able to ‘opt out’ of four-day weeks, the existence of them as a new standard will make it impossible to recruit.”