During the pandemic many businesses have adopted a 4-day week. Adopting a 4-day week would address the current mental health crisis by improving peoples work-life balance, whilst also increasing productivity and reducing business costs. This petition calls for a government trial of a four-day week.

This petition calls on the government to launch a trial of a four-day working week, following in the footsteps of the Spanish government who have recently launched a €50 million, three-year long trial programme.

Last year 17.9M working days were lost due to cases of stress, depression and anxiety, costing UK employers over £45 billion. Levels of work-related illness are highest amongst workers in the healthcare sector, who have been the frontline heroes of the pandemic. Their poor mental health costs employers, including the NHS, up to £2,174 per employee.

A four-day working week improves the lives of both workers and their employees. 78% of people reported that moving to a four-day week had improved their happiness, whilst 64% of business find that it improves staff productivity.

Whilst concerns over the cost of a four-day working week are understandable, studies have found that moving all public sector workers to 32 hour contracts, whilst maintaining current standards of pay would only add  6% to the current public sector salary budget whilst creating between 300,000 to 500,000 new public sector jobs.

Ultimately, a government-funded trial of a four-day working week would improve mental health, increase business productivity all whilst creating new well-paid jobs.

The last year has demonstrated the need to develop a work-life balance that better values peoples psychical and mental well-being. We believe a four-day working week presents the best opportunity to forge this new reality.