Three-quarters of Labour voters back a four-day working week: 'Brits are burnt out'

A new study has found that almost three-quarters of Labour voters would support the government introducing a four-day working week with no loss of pay. 

Polling by Survation, commissioned by The Autonomy Institute, has found 72% of people that voted Labour in last month’s general election support the government moving the country to a shorter working week by 2030. The study, which polled 2,048 adults, also found support for the the scheme across the political spectrum, with 59% of Reform voters also backing a four-day week. 

The majority of Labour voters polled (66%) also supported further trials of the four-day working week in the public sector, with South Cambridgeshire District Council becoming the first UK council to test a shorter week in 2023.

Several countries and companies have seen successful trials of the shorter working week, with research finding at least 54 of the 61 companies that took part in the first UK pilot in 2022 maintained the four-day week a year-and-a-half later. Campaigners have now announced a second UK four-day week pilot to take place in November.

• From a new UK pilot to union backing: The four-day working week has never been closer to reality
• Every single company embracing four-day working week says move has been ‘positive’, study finds

Campaigners for the shorter working week have called the model “long overdue”, claiming “millions of workers in Britain are burnt out, stressed, overworked and in desperate need of a better work-life balance”.

“In the UK, we work some of the longest full-time working hours in in Europe, we have done for decades, and we also have one of the least productive economies,” Joe Ryle, director of the 4 Day Week Campaign, told the Big Issue.

“That suggests that all these long working hours we’re putting in aren’t producing good results for workers, and they’re definitely not producing good results for the economy either… It’s been 100 years since we moved from a six-day working week to a five-day week, and we feel that moving to a four-day week is long overdue.”

Ryle added that British companies have proved through trials that a four-day working week with no loss of pay “can be a win-win for both workers and employers”, and that in order to roll the scheme out on a wider scale, the government must work alongside business leaders and trade unions.

“We’re hoping that more local councils follow the lead of South Cambridge District Council in operating a four-day week model, that’s shown not only has the wellbeing of those council workers improved, but also the performance of the council has improved,” Ryle explained. “We also want to see the UK government launch their own much wider-scale trials in the public sector.”

He added that Labour’s New Deal for Working People, which could ban zero-hour contracts, is a “fairly good start”, but the party shouldn’t rule out “ideas for shorter working” to improve conditions for working people.

“Since the Covid pandemic, there’s been a real drive across the country to rethink the world of work. We’ve seen that already with initiatives like remote working, hybrid working, and they’ve shown that the world of work can change very quickly,” he said.

“We think that ultimately, moving to a four-day week is about giving us all the time to be able to live happier, more fulfilled lives, while also maintaining productivity and business performance. It feels like it’s an idea whose time has come.”

Will Stronge, director of research at The Autonomy Institute, which commissioned the study, told the Big Issue: “Our polling shows that if Keir Starmer were to move ahead with policies to enable the country to transition to a four-day week, he would have the support of vast swathes of the UK population.

“The UK works longer full-time hours than virtually all of our European neighbours and workers have not experienced a meaningful reduction in their working hours since the 1980s. 

“Labour’s New Deal for Working People is a good start but what is absent is a serious plan around working time reduction: if the priority is health, decent working conditions and business innovation, this needs to be part of the programme.” 

Peter Dowd, Labour MP for Bootle, also voiced support for the scheme, claiming British workers are “burnt-out” and in “desperate need of a break”. 

“A four-day week with no loss of pay would give workers a much better work-life balance and the evidence shows it would also improve productivity,” he added. 

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