An environmental charity in St Pauls has moved to a four-day week without any reduction in pay for staff.
City to Sea's 19 employees will work a 32-hour week - but will be paid the same salary as when they worked for five days. The organisation, which campaigns to stop plastic pollution at source, said it was moving to a shorter week permanently after running a trial and receiving positive feedback from staff.
The Wilder Street charity has been named a 'Gold Standard' four-day week employer under the accreditation scheme known as '4 Day Week Campaign'.
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Hetti Dysch, City to Sea’s HR manager, said: "The ‘blaze and burn culture’ of faster, bigger, and better creates workforce burnout and fatigue. Ultimately this culture has led to climate catastrophe as profit is placed above the protection of our precious planet. At City to Sea, we’ve switched to the four-day week as we care about the long-term wellbeing of our team who campaign to protect our oceans from plastic pollution."
Since the Covid pandemic, the four-day working week has become more popular and is now being trialled and implemented across the world. Around 50 per cent of workers would consider moving to a different employer if a four-day working week was being offered, according to new research. Recruitment firm Hays said a study of more than 9,600 people revealed two in five think a four-day week will become a reality in the next few years.
Last year, Atom Bank became the largest UK four-day week employer with all 430 staff moving to a four-day, 34-hour working week, with no reduction in pay.
More than 60 companies have signed up for the UK's biggest ever four-day week pilot which begins in June. The pilot is being run by 4 Day Week Global in partnership with think tank Autonomy, the 4 Day Week Campaign and researchers at Cambridge University, Oxford University and Boston College. It will run for six months.
Joe Ryle, 4 Day Week Campaign director, added: “The four-day week with no loss of pay is a win-win scenario for both workers and employers. With the pandemic easing off and workers desperate for a better work-life balance, now is the perfect time for companies to implement a four-day week. In the wake of the great resignation, organisations should embrace the four-day week as a way of retaining staff and attracting new talent.”
City to Sea is the latest Bristol organisation to move to a four-day week permanently. In November last year, Bristol finance firm UNIQ Family Wealth, which was founded in 2013 by financial planning industry heavyweight Marlene Outrim, announced it was closing its offices every Friday.
