‘Not the 1970s’: Minister slaps down four-day week calls from civil servants

Civil servants won’t get a four-day working week as we’re “not living in the 1970s”, the pensions minister has said.

Emma Reynolds slapped down the demand from Whitehall bureaucrats on Times Radio, after it emerged staff at one department claimed the policy could save the government millions.

Workers at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said shifting to a four-day week with full-time pay could save £21.4m a year by cutting staff turnover and sickness, as the Times reported.

And the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) civil service union claimed in a research document working a four-day week was “essential for a happy and healthy life”.

But speaking to the radio station this morning, Reynolds insisted that civil servants would remain on five-day working contracts. 

Asked on air about the demands, she said: “Well they won’t get one. Because we’re not living in the 1970s.”

Four-day movement

On the issues of savings, Reynolds added: “I don’t believe them. I’m giving you some very clear answers.”

Pressed on whether she saw any “value in having a more rested workforce who will still do the same amount of work on the same money, but will be happier”, the minister responded: “I see the benefit for those who want to have the flexibility to be able to work part time. 

“I’m a mum of two young children. And you know, sometimes I wish that I worked part time. 

“But I don’t think as a whole that civil servants as a general rule should work four days rather than five.”

The four-day week movement has grown since the Covid pandemic which saw staff furloughed and working from home in large numbers.

Civil servants at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) are also pushing for the change, while workers at the Office for National Statistics (ONS), civilian Met Police staff, and Transport for London (TfL) are involved in negotiations over the move.

‘Part-time work, full-time pay?’

While the new government has recently dropped a so-called ‘best value’ notice to South Cambridgeshire district council which has been running a four-day week trial since 2023.

The formal notice of concern was issued by the Conservative government, over worries taxpayers weren’t receiving value for money, with Tory leader Kemi Badenoch raising the issue at PMQs on Wednesday, dubbing it “part-time work for full-time pay?”

Joe Ryle, director of the 4-Day Week Campaign, wrote in the foreword to the PCS research that the “time has come” to trial the arrangement in Whitehall.

“As hundreds of British companies in the private sector have already shown, a four-day week with no loss of pay can be a win-win for both workers and employers,” he said.

A Defra spokeswoman said there were no plans for a four-day week.