30 Irish firms to test four-day working week in pilot programme (2024)

Up to 30 Irish companies are expected to begin trialling a four-day working week from February as part of a six-month pilot programme, the initiative’s leading campaign group has said.

Sinead Crowther and Denise Lauaki, co-founders of Soothing Solutions, will test the new working proposals

Joe O’Connor, chairman of Four Day Week Ireland and campaigning director at Fórsa, a trade union, said 17 companies had already signed up, but that other firms were at advanced stages of joining.

“We’re confident that this first phase of the pilot, in terms of the trial early next year, we’re probably going to be looking at somewhere between 25 and 30 companies on board — that would be our best estimate,” he told The Times.

At least seven companies across Ireland have already implemented a four-day week on a permanent basis. These include; Access Earth, a Dublin-based disability technology services company, JMK Solicitors in Co Down and SCL Sales, a recruitment firm with offices in Shannon and Armagh. The aim of the programme is to reduce working hours by about 20 per cent with no loss of pay or productivity.

O’Connor appeared before the joint Oireachtas committee on enterprise, trade and employment yesterday to discuss the campaign. In his opening statement, O’Connor said the group’s medium term objective was for the four-day working week to become “the new default work arrangement” across the economy with no loss of pay.

He said: “We believe this is not only achievable, but sensible in response to technological change to future-proof our economy and share the benefits with workers. Many companies who have trialled or introduced the four-day week have reported happier, more focused employees and critically higher productivity.

“They’ve experienced reduced employee burnout, stress, sick leave, absenteeism and turnover. For many businesses who are concerned about retaining their best employees, as well as attracting and recruiting new talent, a shorter working week can provide a competitive edge.”

O’Connor said working less had shown to improve “the physical and mental health and well-being of workers”, as well as having the potential to greatly reduce carbon emissions. He said the system could also be revolutionary in terms of gender equality and would reduce childcare costs for families.

Soothing Solutions, a manufacturing company based in Co Louth, is among the companies due to trial the programme in February. The start-up firm is currently only in the process of hiring employees and will officially open when the trial commences.

Sinead Crowther, its chief executive, said: “We’re literally just building our manufacturing facility and we just thought it would be a great opportunity as a start-up to be progressive, and if the four-day week is the future, why not take this opportunity to explore how we could implement it.”

Crowther said the pandemic had greatly accelerated the thought process in implementing a four-day week. “We all see the benefits of having the option of going into work a couple of days or staying at home, so I think implementing a four-day week would further relieve mental pressures,” she said.

“The pandemic had us stuck at home all day every day and really highlighted the need for more quality time at home.”

O’Connor believes a four-day week could also be implemented in industries such as healthcare and hospitality, that operate longer working hours. “It is a reality that there are some sectors of the economy that are maybe more ready to move now in terms of what we see as being a transition over the next five to ten years and can do so in a way that doesn’t require increased employment costs,” he said.

“Let’s take for example health care, do we believe that you could introduce the four-day working week for nurses and doctors without hiring more nurses and doctors? No, we don’t. But we do think that as a policy measure, [there are benefits] in having nurses and doctors that aren’t suffering from the same level of stress and burnout.

“A lot of research would suggest that one of the areas that we do need to invest in, in terms of the creation of new jobs, is in the caring economy. There are certain areas where if the four-day week were to be introduced, it would require more staff to be hired, but actually in those sectors, we think that that would be a good thing as it would improve the quality of the work.”

In a statement last night, the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, which is leading on the research call for the four-day working week initiative, said: “We are still in the process of finalising the call details, which we expect to publish in the coming weeks.

“The purpose of the research project will be to develop a base of evidence, regarding the potential social, economic and environmental impacts of a move to a four-day week. It’s a complex and wide-ranging subject. It covers environmental, economic and social issues.”

It said it would also ensure value for money from taxpayer funding.

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