PM rules out four-day week for civil servants

Civil service union PCS accuses government of ignoring "real gains" that a shorter working week can offer
Photo: Karl Black/Alamy

By Tevye Markson

15 Nov 2024

Keir Starmer is not in favour of civil servants getting a four-day working week, the prime minister’s spokesperson has confirmed.

The PM’s position lines up with with comments made by pensions minister Emma Reynolds yesterday.

Reynolds was asked about research by the PCS union, which found introducing a four-day week for civil servants in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs could save more than £20m a year. Reynolds said she did not believe the claims and that civil servants would be offered a four-day week.

Asked if Starmer agreed with Reynolds’ comments on the four-day week proposals, the PM’s spokesperson said: “Yes, it’s not something we support. The civil service is working to deliver for working people day in, day out.”

Responding to the remarks, PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote said: “The government's knee-jerk response is disappointing, especially as they ignore the evidence in front of them that a four-day week can lead to real gains, including financial savings, for employers and workers.

“Enlightened businesses are increasingly adopting the four-day-week for their staff because can see the benefits. The government should not close its mind just because the right-wing press has.”

Civil servants in both the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government have recently been calling for the government to reduce the number of days in their working week.

While the government has rejected the idea of civil servants being granted a four-day working week, MHCLG has lifted a special measures regime imposed on South Cambridgeshire District Council, which began trialling four-day week working for its staff last year.

Explaining the decision, MHCLG's deputy director for local government stewardship and intervention, Max Soule, said the government does not support a general move to a four-day working week for five days’ worth of pay, but recognises that local authorities are “independent employers who are rightly responsible for the management and organisation of their own workforces”.

Asked about whether councils should be able to move staff to a four-day week, the PM’s spokesperson said: “It’s up to local councils. It’s not government policy to support a four-day working week, it’s up to the local electorate.”

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