South Cambs District Council discusses continuing 4-day working week
The Government is against the idea - and has issued the council with a best value notice
The longer the four-day week trial at South Cambridgeshire District Council runs for, the more “challenging” it could be to revert back to a five-day week, the authority has said.
A report published by the district council said there is a risk that the longer the four-day week is in place the harder it will be to reverse without a “loss of morale, or a big impact on recruitment and retention”.
At an employment and staffing committee meeting this week, Councillor Mark Howell (Conservative) asked how difficult it would be to return to a five-day week if the district council decided not to continue the trial, and whether the authority had already gone past the “point of no return”.
Jeff Membery, the head of transformation, HR and corporate services at the district council, said the authority could still go back to a five-day week.
He said: “We have been clear with all staff that this is a trial and that we cannot preempt the decision of members, we have been very clear about that not only to staff but to recruits as well."
“We have not changed anyone’s terms and conditions of employment to make sure that if members decide it is not appropriate for us then we will be able to revert back.
“The longer it goes on it is an increasing risk, but we are keeping people informed as to why we are having to continue the trial.”
Mr Membery said the authority had also committed to holding a “meaningful consultation” on the four-day week once it had all the information it needed.
The district council introduced the four-day week trial for desk-based staff at the start of 2023, before later expanding it to include staff working in the waste collection service.
Under the trial staff receive full pay for working fewer hours, but are expected to complete all of their work in that time.
The authority began the trial to see if it would help with the staff recruitment and retention problems it was facing.
The district council’s leadership has faced repeated backlash over the trial, both from opposition councillors and central government.
A Best Value Notice was issued by the government to the district council in November last year, which is a formal notification of the government’s concerns about the authority.
The government has also said it is considering using “levers” in its funding settlement for the coming financial year to “disincentivise the four-day working week”.
The district council is currently proposing to continue the trial until it receives more information about what the funding impact could be, after which the authority has said it plans to hold a consultation.
At the meeting this week Councillor Richard Stobart (Liberal Democrat) said he believed the trial was ‘unlocking potential’ for a new way of working.
He said: “When I started work in 1975 I was working 37.5 hours a week. Pre-First World War it was quite typical for manual and clerical workers to be working 66 hours a week, of course that was pre-IT and the systems then were different and concerns were different."
“In those 60 years up to 1975 we saw almost a 50 per cent reduction in the working week and since 1975 to today we have seen nothing.
“Yet in that time we have had several revolutions, not least of which is the digital revolution, which has made information available, working practices can change.
“I think the exercise that we have been going through as South Cambridgeshire District Council is illustrative to the potential that has kind of been locked away all of those years and it has now emerged.”
Cllr Howell said he had concerns about the physical impact on bin collectors of working fewer hours.
He said: “With regards to waste collection, the way I see it is now all 100 per cent of the actions that have to be taken are done over the four days instead of the five days, so that to me means that a higher work ratio is taking place."
“I am concerned about the amount of stress that is being put on the bodies of those collectors.”
One of the officers said so far the feedback that had been received showed “absolutely no detrimental effect on the wellbeing of crews”.
They said so far the trial had been shown to have a positive impact on the crew’s wellbeing.
Cllr Howell said his concern was more around the “long term effect on people’s bodies physically”, rather than the “short term mental health and wellbeing”.
The district council’s cabinet is due to meet next month, where it is expected to decide whether to agree to continue the trial until it receives more information from the government about whether its funding will be impacted.