LABOUR would reduce the average working week to 32 hours within 10 years of being in government, John McDonnell has claimed.
In his speech at the Labour Party’s conference in Brighton, the shadow chancellor claimed the move to an effective four-day week could be achieved with no reduction in pay for workers.
The average working week was 37.1 hours in 2018, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures.
McDonnell said: “We should work to live, not live to work.
“In the 1860s people worked a 65-hour week. Thanks to past Labour governments – but actually mainly thanks to the trade union movement – by the 1970s the average working week had been reduced to 43 hours.
“As society got richer, we could spend fewer hours at work. But in recent decades progress has stalled.
“Since the 1980s the link between increasing productivity and expanding free time has been broken. It’s time to put that right.
“So I can tell you today that the next Labour government will reduce the average full-time working week to 32 hours within the next decade.”
The move, which was welcomed by trade unions, will involve setting up an independent Working Time Commission to recommend increases in minimum holiday entitlements.
Collective bargaining will enable trade unions and employers to negotiate how to meet the target in each sector of the economy.
There would not be a French-style cap on weekly working hours, instead progress to the 32-hour goal would be assessed based on the annual average figure compiled by the ONS.
TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady welcomed the commitment and said: “It’s time for working people to share in the benefits of new technology. That’s why unions have been arguing for less time at work, more time with family and friends and decent pay for everyone.”
Confederation of British Industry director-general Carolyn Fairbairn warned the plan to reduce average hours could hit firms and was scathing about some of McDonnell’s other policies which “risk hanging a ‘closed’ sign on the door of our open economy”.
She added: “Who would turn down a four-day week on the same pay? But without productivity gains it would push many businesses into loss.”
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