Four-day week campaign: MP submits bill to Parliament

An MP has tabled a Parliamentary bill to reduce the maximum working week to four days.

Peter Dowd, Labour MP for Bootle in Merseyside, is campaigning for maximum hours to be cut back from 48 to 32.

He said it would give "every British worker the chance of moving to a four-day week".

The bill is due to be discussed in the House of Commons on 18 October and must proceed successfully through several stages before it can become law.

Many British firms taking part in an international six-month trial of the four-day working week have said they will continue with it after the pilot.

As part of the scheme, employees retain their full pay while working 80% of their previous hours.

At the trial's half-way point, data has showed productivity has been maintained or improved at the majority of participating firms.

However, some companies in the scheme found the move to reduced hours "trickier".

Mr Dowd, a former shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said: "I am introducing this legislation because we're long overdue a shorter working week.

"In the UK, workers put in some of the longest working hours across Europe while pay and productivity remains low in comparison."

The bill includes a clause saying employees working more than 32 hours should be paid an overtime rate of 1.5 times their ordinary rate.

Joe Ryle, director of the 4 Day Week Campaign, said the move to a shorter working week would make people "much happier".

"It would give us the time to properly rest, enjoy a better quality of life and boost productivity at work," he added.

"The 9-5, 5-day working week is outdated and no longer fit for purpose."

South Cambridgeshire District Council recently became the first UK local authority to pilot a four-day week, with no cut in workers' pay, while Bristol-based charity City to Sea adopted it permanently this year, saying it was countering a "blaze and burn culture" in workplaces.

Before the 2019 General Election, the Labour Party said it wanted a 32-hour working week, with no loss of pay, within 10 years.

Mr Dowd has tabled a Ten Minute Rule Bill, which allows a backbench MP to make their case for a new bill in a speech up to 10 minutes.

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