{"id":174876,"date":"2024-11-14T14:50:06","date_gmt":"2024-11-14T14:50:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/14\/starmer-rejects-civil-servants-demands-for-four-day-working-week\/"},"modified":"2024-11-14T14:50:06","modified_gmt":"2024-11-14T14:50:06","slug":"starmer-rejects-civil-servants-demands-for-four-day-working-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/14\/starmer-rejects-civil-servants-demands-for-four-day-working-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Starmer rejects civil servants’ demands for four-day working week"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Starmer<\/div>


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Sir Keir Starmer has rejected civil servants’ demands for a four-day working week, hours after a minister said: “We’re not living in the 1970s.”<\/p>\n

Civil servants who are members of the PCS union have been campaigning for a four-day working week and on Wednesday released research they said could save the government \u00a321.4m a year in one department.<\/p>\n

However, Sir Keir Starmer’s official spokesman said it is “not government policy to support a four-day working week”.<\/p>\n

“The civil service is working to deliver for working people day in, day out,” he added.<\/p>\n

Latest politics: Chancellor set to dig into pension ‘mega funds’<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The PCS called the government’s response “knee-jerk” and “disappointing”, and said ministers were being close-minded.<\/p>\n

Pensions minister Emma Reynolds was more forthright in her response than Number 10, as she simply said civil servants “won’t get one”, in reference to a four-day week.<\/p>\n

Asked why not, she told Times Radio: “Because we’re not living in the 1970s.”<\/p>\n

Under Edward Heath’s Conservative government in 1973-1974, a three-day week was introduced to conserve electricity amid major strikes involving coal miners and railway workers.<\/p>\n

Ms Reynolds added that she did not believe a four-day week for Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) staff would save \u00a321.4m a year.<\/p>\n

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\n Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman said the government would not support a four-day week for civil servants. Pic: PA
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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.<\/p>\n

“Enlightened businesses are increasingly adopting the four-day-week for their staff because can see the clear benefits.<\/p>\n

“Ministers should not close their minds just because the right-wing press has.”<\/p>\n

Farmers reacted badly to the PCS DEFRA research after the government announced they would no longer be exempt from all inheritance tax.<\/p>\n

Steve Ridsdale, chairman of the British Farming Union, said he was frustrated civil servants were asking for a four-day week “when asking us to work our socks off to pay a tax bill”.<\/p>\n

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Read more:
Cancelled pay rises for managers among NHS reform<\/a><\/strong>
Pledge to help families in ‘utter despair’ over baby formula prices<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The PCS study, which saw more than 1,200 DEFRA staff interviewed, estimated staff turnover would reduce annually by 57% if they worked a four-day week, freeing up \u00a321.4m a year, which could hire an additional 2,345 employees.<\/p>\n

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It said the sum is roughly equivalent to the department’s flood defence budget for Northumbria, an area at high risk of flooding.<\/p>\n

The study found sickness absence could drop by 65%.<\/p>\n

In February, it was revealed most of the UK companies that took part in the world’s largest-ever four-day working week trial had made the policy permanent.<\/p>\n

Of the 61 organisations that took part in the six-month pilot in 2022, 54 (89%) were still operating the policy a year later.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sir Keir Starmer has rejected civil servants’ demands for a four-day working week, hours after a minister said: “We’re not living in the 1970s.” Civil servants who are members of the PCS union have been campaigning for a four-day working week and on Wednesday released research they said could save the government \u00a321.4m a year […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/11\/768x432\/skynews-keir-starmer-downing-street_6747304.jpg?20241113113914","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[7799,269,44180,1733,23854,3960,1513,5864],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174876"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174876"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174878,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174876\/revisions\/174878"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}