Pandemic perfect time to bring in four-day week, pioneer says

Thursday, 3 December 2020

Founder and managing director Andrew Barnes said there was no downside to introducing the four-day week.

The Spanish Government is poised to legislate for a four-day work week and the man who pioneered the model says New Zealand should do the same.

Andrew Barnes made global headlines when he successfully introduced the four-day week to his New Zealand trust company, Perpetual Guardian, in 2018.

Two years later, his bold idea appears to be catching on, with Unilever this week announcing a 12-month trial of the four-day week across its New Zealand operation.

If successful, the multinational consumer goods company could roll the model out to 165,000 workers globally.

Perpetual Guardian founder Andrew Barnes says New Zealand had a head start on a flexible work model but has fallen behind. (File photo)

* The world looks to New Zealand for the prospect of a four-day week

* Work-life balance: 'An issue that's time has come'

On a larger scale, Spanish workers could soon be enjoying a four-day week as the country’s left-wing government looks at options to deal with the economic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic.

As part of its 2021 budget, the Spanish finance ministry is considering proposals to give financial support to businesses that cut the work week to 32 hours, with no loss of pay to workers.

Barnes said while Perpetual Guardian’s four-day week had given New Zealand a head start on a productivity-focused flexible work model, the country was now falling behind.

“Europe is now ahead of the pack with our initiative. Specifically, in Spain it is a small left-wing party, Mas Pais, which has proposed the pilot plan, budgeted to cost about €50 million [NZ$86m].”

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern delivers her speech during Budget 2020.

Barnes said it was time for the New Zealand Government to match its rhetoric with action.

In May, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern suggested employers consider a four-day week as an option to boost the country’s tourism industry and help employees strike a better work-life balance.

During a Facebook live video, Ardern said people had reported that they would travel around New Zealand more if they had the flexibility of leave to do so.

“Ultimately that really sits between employers and employees. But as I’ve said, there’s just so much we’ve learnt about Covid and that flexibility of people working from home, the productivity that can be driven out of that,” she said.

But despite the PM’s comments and some some other positive noises from Parliament, there been no practical follow-up to support businesses and workers, Barnes said.

“It’s disappointing to hear these supportive statements from the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance but then see no practical follow-up to support business and workers.

“The four-day week is radical but rational, and it is what the New Zealand economy needs if we are to, as political leaders around the world like to say, build back better.”

Barnes said the four-day week model directly addressed gender equality and the pay gap, mental health, climate change and other issues the Government had talked about and it now needed to do more than talk.

“Business leaders have been broadly enthusiastic about the four-day week in dozens of countries, but we cannot reap the full economic and social benefits of it without legislative change of the kind Spain is proposing.

“When, in momentous points in history, we have embraced the future of work – with the eight-hour day, the five-day week – it has been with legislative change led by governments that see the road ahead, often with a push from labour organisers.”