Well, I'm not necessarily concerned with the past—I'm more concerned about the present and the future.

Measuring productivity is a very complicated subject and there is no linear correlation to working less, being paid the same and increased productivity. If productivity is increased, then it simply means that the employee will have to do five days' work in four days. Actually, these proposals would, in my mind, be counterproductive for some, because, as working hours become more intense, there would be less time for breaks and less time for movement between tasks and locations. Whilst very large companies may be able to reduce workloads with a reduction in the number of working days, I argue that many smaller organisations will probably still expect the same workloads for the same pay. And so what a four-day working week will ultimately do is create a divide, where some workers in the public sector and large organisations would enjoy working less, while others will be worked harder in those four days in an effort to keep businesses open.

In Utah, for example, the four-day working week was abandoned in 2011, because, although public sector workers enjoyed an extra day off, there were considerable complaints that people could just not access public services. Also, these proposals could have little benefit in terms of health and well-being for those workers on the lowest pay, who may be tempted to seek additional employment on the extra day they would normally have worked. There is the issue that many organisations, including our national health service, will probably struggle to meet demand if their staff worked fewer hours. Likewise, in order to make available the same operating hours, they might well struggle to employ sufficiently qualified staff who are prepared to work part time, which would then affect the overall availability of services. This raises another important question as to whether schoolchildren would also be educated four days a week, or would schools have to employ a full set of qualified teaching staff for just one day.

I note that Plaid Cymru and Luke mentioned Iceland, but that country's proposal is to actually reduce the average working week from 40 hours to around 36 hours without a reduction in pay. According to the UK Office for National Statistics, the average working week in the UK just before COVID was 36.9 hours. So, in theory, Iceland is really just bringing in their working hours in alignment with other countries.

Finally, may I add that enforcing a four-day working week onto workers is not conducive to a healthy society with the rights of choice? Sadly, many people only have their work colleagues as their social contacts and with whom they spend time on a regular basis during working hours. Forcing them to lose 20 per cent of their contact with others, in addition to making their working day more intense, will harm their mental health.

There's no doubt in my mind—proposing that the Welsh Government should trial a four-day working week is meaningless and, ultimately, ill-thought through, as I hope we have demonstrated. The Welsh Government has no remit for employment matters, which are reserved to the UK Government, and we should not be wasting our time debating a motion such as this. That is why we have proposed our amendments. Thank you.