Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:50 pm on 22 September 2021.
Well, of course, I was just about to move on to the Icelandic model. But, of course, there are other ways of doing it, and he's correct to point to some of the disadvantages with the Spanish model. But, if we look at the Icelandic trial, we see there workers being paid the same amount for shorter hours, and also see productivity as well remain the same or improve in the majority of workplaces. Now 86 per cent of workers in Iceland have either moved to shorter work hours for the same pay or will gain the right to. And the health and well-being benefits were clear—workers reported feeling less stressed and less at risk of burnout through improved work-life balances.
That final point on work-life balance is particularly important when it comes to the UK. Information provided by the Trades Union Congress shows that, based on pre-pandemic data, full-time workers in the UK clocked in some of the longest hours in the EU, with 1.4 million workers working all seven days of the week.
But it isn’t just Governments who are looking at a four-day work week. An increasing amount of companies are coming around to the idea; Unilever being one example, who are planning on moving workers in New Zealand to a four-day work week.
I’m sure Members will agree that we cannot expect to maintain the status quo when it comes to working practices. As I highlighted earlier, automation and, of course, the pandemic have changed and will change the world of work forever. We cannot bury our heads in the sand. For the good of all workers in Wales, I would hope that this Senedd would agree that there is more to life than work.