Routes to shorter working hours
Labour’s shadow chancellor John McDonnell has committed a future Labour government to reducing the average working week to 32 hours within a decade.
Labour’s plan would involve setting up an independent Working Time Commission — based on the Low Pay Commission model — to recommend increases in minimum holiday entitlements, and the rolling out sectoral collective bargaining.
McDonnell’s proposals follow the publication of a report by Lord Skidelsky, How to achieve shorter working hours, which was comissioned by McDonnell. The report calls for:
• a Job Guarantee Scheme -for any job seeker who cannot find work in the private sector;
• investment in the public sector;
• the use of procurement policies to establish pay, conditions and hours;
• establishing sectoral social partnership forums, by legislation if necessary;
• imposing a statutory duty on listed companies to disclose the impact of automation on employment; and
• improving and enforcing individual time rights, including ending the opt-out provision for the EU Working Time Directive
Skidelsky steers away from an across-the-board approach like France’s 35-hour week, which he says is not “realistic or even desirable”, because of the needs of different sectors. While the state would have a crucial role, social attitudes support a piecemeal rather than a one-size fits all approach.
Employees welcome the goal of shorter hours, but some want earlier retirement or more flexible hours rather than a shorter week.