Election 2024: Prospect of a four-day working week becomes battleground issue
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The prospect of a four-day working week has become an election battleground as parties on the left seek to woo potential voters.
The idea has been floated by the Green Party, Labour, Social Democrats, and People Before Profit over the last week. But Fine Gael has said it is not in favour of moving to a four-day week.
People Before Profit has said it would introduce a shorter work week without a loss of pay but the other parties have promised to trial and investigate how such an initiative would work in Ireland.
The Green Party has put the issue at the centre of its re-election campaign, saying a Citizen's Assembly would be established most likely during the second year of the next government.
Speaking at the launch of the Greens' work/life balance policy, party leader Roderic O'Gorman said the government needs to look at measures to support workers and allow them to benefit from changes in technology.
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"We have seen changes in work practices already over the last three years, things we never thought possible were made possible," Mr O'Gorman said referring to the move towards hybrid working that was brought about by the pandemic.
He clarified that his party is not saying it would immediately implement a four-day working week but that the idea should be thoroughly examined and given proper consideration.
Green Party candidate Hazel Chu put it up to both Simon Harris and Micheál Martin that they are "scared to even discuss the prospect".
"We can only surmise that improving people's quality of life isn't that important an issue for the Taoiseach and Tánaiste," Ms Chu said.
"100 years ago, industrialists and newspaper barons were aghast at the idea of moving to a five-day week yet no-one would dream of reversing that decision now. In decades to come, we may look back at the introduction of a four-day week and question why we didn’t do it sooner."
She said the move would have wide ranging benefits including easing traffic on our roads, boosting capacity on public transport and "offering a boost to our sports and arts sector".
Trade union Fórsa cited similar benefits when it published its own election manifesto which found that 74% of public servants would vote for political parties or candidates that commit to trialling a four-day week in the public and civil services.
"As it stands, only a small proportion of people, usually those on higher incomes, can choose to reduce their hours and enjoy all the benefits of autonomy over their time and time away from work," it said.
A four-day work week would also reduce childcare costs — an issue that has been a major talking point in this election campaign.
Speaking at the launch of the Green Party's children's charter, Mr O'Gorman claimed he has "done the heavy lifting" in terms of the reduction of childcare fees over the lifetime of the outgoing government.
Mr O'Gorman said that not only did he not receive support from his coalition partners, he had to fight them.
Continuing to level criticism at his former partners in government, Mr O'Gorman said the "deeply green" programme for government that was negotiated in 2020 "stirred up resentment in parts of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael" which has been bubbling under the surface for the last four-and-a-half years.
Responding to a perceived preference among Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil to partner with Labour over another term with the Greens, Mr O'Gorman said: "I do think there are some within both of those parties who would prefer to be propped up by a weaker coalition partner."
He added: "I would argue that the Green Party with 12 TDs has been able to deliver more in that four-and-a-half years than the Labour Party did with 37 TDs."