Scotland’s four-day week trial is fatally flawed

In a virtual gathering at the start of September, members of Scotland’s ruling Scottish National Party (SNP) voted overwhelmingly to break with tradition by ditching the five-day working week and replacing it with a four-day system instead. A total of 509 delegates at the party’s annual conference backed plans for a trial of a four-day week. Just 16 dissented.

Given the benefits reported by various Scottish companies that have already adopted the model, it is perhaps no wonder that the SNP wants everyone to share in the spoils. Edinburgh construction company Orocco, for example, says productivity increased and staff mental health improved when it dropped Fridays from its working week back in April. Similarly, Melissa Cairney, an employee at Glasgow packaging firm UPAC, says her employer had no qualms about moving to four-day weeks following a successful two-month trial earlier this year. “Trials […] showed no evidence of any drop in productivity but a marked decrease in stress levels as the staff embraced management’s desire to make their lives better,” she says.

Though both companies are small – each employs fewer than 50 people – their findings chime with the results of much larger-scale trials conducted in countries including Iceland. Between 2015 and 2019 Reykjavík City Council and the national government let office and shift workers cut their hours without any reduction in pay and found the benefits to their wellbeing were repaid to employers by way of productivity gains.

Leave a Comment