Labour knows the four-day week can work

Having already faced the ire of farmers and businesses within months of entering Government, it is perhaps no surprise that Labour’s pensions minister gave an unusually straight answer when asked about a four-day working week for civil servants in a recent interview. So shocked was the presenter asking Emma Reynolds the questions on Times Radio on Wednesday morning that she was momentarily lost for words. Reynolds was being asked about proposals for civil servants to work a four-day week for the same amount of pay .

Union bosses claim this could save government departments millions, with workers taking fewer sick days and better staff retention. Reynolds however, was having none of it. Clearly she can spot a political bear trap.

“They won’t get one [a four-day week] because we’re not living in the 70s,” she said. She went on: “I see the benefit for those who want to have the flexibility to be able to work part-time. I’m a mum of two young children.

And you know, sometimes I wish that I worked part-time. But I don’t think..

. that civil servants, as a general rule, should work four days rather than five.” It was Kemi Badenoch, the new Conservative leader, who first caused red warning lights to flash for No 10 this week over the policy.

She asked the Prime Minister during PMQs whether he supports councils giving their staff the freedom to work four days instead of five. South Cambridgeshire council had been holding out against the former Tory Government, which wanted to end its four-day week, despite the council’s claims that productivity either improved or remained the same and a saving of £370,000 was made. Sir Keir Starmer batted the question away in the Commons, suggesting Badenoch stick to facts and not “fantasy questions”.

But the truth is, Labour is indeed giving councils the freedom to introduce four-day working weeks if they want to, where the Tories in Government had refused. Spotting an opportunity, the PCS Union – most of the members of which are government and Civil Service workers – is now pushing ministers to discuss allowing government departments to do the same, starting with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. The same department that looks after farming.

.. you can see where this is going.

Read Next The truth about David Lammy: he has been fighting for his job There is research to back up arguments for and against giving staff one extra day off per week, and many different models of making it work. Several employers who were part of the biggest trial of the four-day week in the UK so far kept them a year on, having found the benefits outweighed any negatives. But Labour is learning quickly that although a policy might make economic sense on paper, pushing it through can lead to huge political headaches further down the track.

Imagine allowing office staff working on farming policy an extra day off a week for the same amount of pay and no extra hours, at the same time as farmers prepare to protest against the inheritance tax rises that they warn will force family farms out of business. The reaction from farmers would probably be fierce. But there has long been a sense that civil servants and those working in the public sector enjoy greater job security and better pay than those in the private sector more broadly.

There is a perception – which unions refute – that those working for organisations like the Civil Service already have it pretty good. Piling in after the minister was Fran Heathcote, the boss of the PCS Union, who told Times Radio that claims civil servants already receive “gold-plated pensions” and other protections that many staff in the wider economy don’t are “myths peddled by the media”. She also called on the Government to have “an adult conversation” about the benefits of giving civil servants an extra day off.

Her arguments will put backs up at exactly the moment when No 10 wants to do the opposite, still reeling from pushback from farmers and businesses against the Budget. Indeed, Downing Street insiders hold up their hands and admit Starmer’s overseas trips and the fact the new Government didn’t hold a Budget for weeks left a vacuum it will take time to recover from. The PCS Union may have a point about the need for an adult conversation around changing working practices and the benefits that a four-day week might bring.

Evidence compiled by union staff working within Defra shows over £20m could be saved in just one department if the policy were implemented. But even those numbers won’t be enough to sway Starmer as he faces a protest by farmers in London next week. Politics is all about timing and picking your battles and the Prime Minister knows, like Reynolds does, that just because it might make sense to you, doesn’t necessarily make it a good idea – at least not yet.

Kate McCann is political editor at Times Radio.