Responding to the Welsh Government’s four-day week working group’s recommendations, Joel James MS, Shadow Minister for Social Partnership, said:
The major problem of the four-day working week is that it cannot be rolled out across every sector, meaning that it will create a two-tier working environment, with office based public sector workers obtaining a privilege that cannot be enjoyed by most private sector workers and many frontline public sector workers.
By introducing a four-day working week the Labour Welsh Government would effectively be reducing the hours worked by the public sector for the same pay. This is not the same as many four-day working trials in the private sector that have simply allowed workers to work the same hours over four days instead of five days.
The Welsh Conservatives propose that the same benefits of a four-day working week can be obtained by improving the flexibility workers to take time off to balance family life and other commitments.
