Minister would consider four-day working week

Jersey's health minister says a four-day working week is something he will look at "in principle".

Deputy Tom Binet was responding to a question from the head of the health scrutiny panel Deputy Louise Doublet.

In a scrutiny meeting, she asked the minister whether he would consider trialling a four-day working week for public sector staff to give people more time to lead healthier lives.

Mr Binet said: "If it can be done without damaging the economy, fine."

He adde: "What you wouldn't want to do is to implement that, everybody's feeling fine, but your tax revenue goes down by 20%."

Mr Binet said he would personally be "delighted" with a four-day working week.

He said he would not dismiss the idea without looking at it and invited Ms Doublet to discuss it more off-the-record.

Four-day working weeks can mean condensed hours, or reduced hours.

Ms Doublet said both options should be explored in Jersey.

She suggested a "hybrid model" for the government, where those “who can’t reduce their working hours still benefit”.

She said: “Research shows that employees often value an offer of more time over more money, so it might be that in some departments workers could choose to move to a model of reduced working hours and not take a pay rise.

“This would free up public funds to give a decent salary increase to roles such as nursing where it isn't as simple to reduce working hours.“

Ms Doublet said the government should aim to trial the four-day week as soon as possible.

Follow BBC Jersey on X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook. Send your story ideas to [email protected].