Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. The old ways of working are dead—or at least, that's what I hope we can say by the end of this debate. The consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on economic activity, employment and our way of working have been far-reaching. With working from home the norm for many, workers across Wales and the world saw a distinct, positive shift in creating a better work-life balance. Many workers did not have to commute for hours each day; in-person meetings that should have been a phone call became a phone call; and a phone call that could have been an e-mail became an e-mail. Many workers found that being able to spend more time at home and with their family improved both their physical and mental well-being.

Despite this, as a UN report on COVID and the world of work published last year shows, it is true to say that not all workers benefited from these well-being and work-life balances. A four-day working week, done right, is one way to ensure that these benefits can be baked into our work practices and felt by all workers, whether they be higher or lower waged.

What the pandemic has made clear is that radical shifts for the better are possible when Government gets it right. The UK economy has long been unbalanced, harming workers at either end of the scale, and the current crisis threatens to exacerbate the negative mental health impacts for the millions struggling to find any or more work, and similar numbers wishing to reduce their hours. If the first months of the crisis are any indication of what is to come, it also suggests that these impacts will be felt much more strongly by women and drive us further from a gender-equal economy.

In 1930, John Maynard Keynes predicted that, 100 years on, employees would work no more than 15 hours per week. The reasoning behind that would be rapid technological advancements liberating the workforce, providing more time for leisure. One aspect of this prediction appears to have been accurate: by 2030, conservative estimates project that 30 per cent of existing jobs will have been lost to automation. Technological advances are transforming the world of work, and, at present, automation is perceived both as a promise and a threat, the promise being perceived to lie in the potential for automation to liberate workers from the grind of long hours and bolster wages through a share in future productivity gains, while the fear lies in mass redundancies, as advances in technology begin to strip demands for labour, as well as widening inequalities.

If the anticipated productivity gains from automation benefit only those with a share in business capital, then we risk making a reality the dystopian futures that we often see depicted in books and films. What is clear now is that the world of work will change at breakneck speed over the next decade, and that, without progressive policy interventions, we will miss an opportunity to share the benefits of automation equitably across society and make headway in tackling societal inequalities. A shorter working week is one way of sharing the spoils of technological progress.

Now of course, my colleagues will speak on a variety of points during this debate, and I look forward to contributions from across the Chamber. But I would remind Members that we do not need to look far to see our neighbours cracking on with a four-day week. Scotland and Ireland, for example, have already announced plans for a pilot scheme, and Spain, of course, has also announced intentions to pilot a four-day work week amongst companies that are interested as early as this autumn.