Could Plymouth council workers get a four-day week?

Green councillor says it's good for their health

Introducing a four-day working week for Plymouth City Council staff to address problems of long term sickness and help the authority’s ambitions to get more people back to work, has been mooted by one councillor.

Plympton Chaddlewood Green councillor Lauren McLay said it was a way in which the council could lead by example in “inclusive working practices”.

Speaking at the council’s natural infrastructure and growth scrutiny panel on Wednesday, the councillor said a four-day working week had been shown to have really positive benefits to gender equality, mental and physical health and no negative impact in terms of productivity.

Members were discussing the wider context of inclusive growth and how everyone can contribute to, and benefit from, the economy.

Plymouth City Council wants to tackle inequalities and support those who face barriers to employment such as health challenges, caring responsibilities and living in areas of deprivation.

Plymouth City Council has set itself a target of getting 5,000 of its 13,600 economically inactive people into work, particularly impacting on the people who are long term sick.

It also aims to get 3,000 people in the 28 most deprived areas of the city out of poverty.

Cllr McLay said the council, with its large workforce of more than 2,500, had experienced its own challenges of people being away from work for long periods with health problems.

“Creating inclusive working practices might help to show other employees in the city what is  possible,” she said.

In July, South Cambridgeshire District Council voted to permanently adopt a four-day week for staff at full pay following a vote by councillors.

Staff had been trialling doing all of their work in 80 per cent of their hours since January 2023 without losing pay.

Plymouth engineering firm Applied Automation (UK) Ltd brought in a four-day week for workers with no cut in pay in September.

The move was designed to support workers’ wellbeing, improve their work-life balance, and foster long-term growth. 

Cllr Sarah Allen (Lab, Peverell) said many people were finding it difficult to work because of “draconian sickness policies, lack of reasonable adjustment and access to occupational health”.

She asked if there was a role for some really constructive work with the local trade unions around tackling zero hours contracts and ‘fire and rehire’, a controversial practice where an employer dismisses an employee and immediately rehires them on often less pay.

Cllr Chris Penberthy (Lab, St Peter and the Waterfront), cabinet member for housing, cooperative development and communities and chair of the child poverty working group said  conversations were starting to be had with businesses about what they could offer and what they needed and some employers in the city were beginning to work in different ways.

But he added others felt they had lots of demands on them at the moment, due to the economic situation and he did not wish to “alienate them”.

The councillor said PCC, working with its partners, wanted to bring “systemic change” and it would take time: “We are not going to open a shiny project that will fix this,” he said.

PCC wants to ensure that growth from the government investment of 4.4 billion in Plymouth’s defence industry gets to the places and communities that need it most.

One “sticky” statistic was that 46.2 per cent of women earned below the weekly real living wage of £466 a week, which Cllr Penberthy said was “not acceptable” and in terms of inclusive growth was “something we need to tackle”.

This was the first time that the council’s economic strategy put inclusive growth at its heart, he said.