Civil servants in London and other parts of Britain had their plea for a four-day week bluntly rejected by a minister who said: “We are not living in the 1970s.”
Pensions minister Emma Reynolds also dismissed claims that the shorter working week for civil servants would save the Government more than £20million.
The Public and Commercial Services Union, which represents civil servants, is pushing for a four-day week in Whitehall and other government centres around the country.
But asked about this request, Ms Reynolds told Times Radio: “Well they won’t get one.”
Pressed why she was rejecting the demand so clearly, she added: “Because we are not living in the 1970s,” in an apparent reference to the three-day week introduced by the Heath government in the early part of that decade to conserve electricity.
On the claim that a four-day week would save the Government £21.4million a year, she responded: “I don’t believe them.”
She explained further: “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 sometimes I wished 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.”
Civil servants, though, are arguing that the move is “critical to attaining a good quality of life”.
The arrangement would more than halve staff turnover and free up money to hire an extra 2,345 workers, officials in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) estimate.
The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), which carried out the research, says it shows sickness absence could also drop from 4.3 average working days lost per staffer annually to 1.5 days.
Whitehall officials are campaigning for Defra to carry out a pilot four-day week scheme within the department so that managers can assess the arrangement.
However, the demand risks sparking fresh accusations of low productivity among some civil servants.
Statisticians within Defra who are members of the PCS say the Government could save £21.4 million from a four-day week.
That figure is based on Institute for Government modelling of the year 2016-17 and updated to reflect a rise in salaries, staff numbers and turnover since then.
In a survey of more than 1,200 members carried out by the PCS as part of its research, 80 per cent of respondents said the change would give them health and wellbeing benefits.
General secretary Fran Heathcote said the study suggested any opposition to employees working a four-day week was “purely ideological” because the arrangement has “financial benefits too.”
Hitting back as Ms Reynolds’ “living in the 1970s” comment, she added: “"No, we're not. We're living in the 2020s and we've moved on from then and adopted smarter working practices".
Director of the 4-Day Week Campaign Joe Ryle, who wrote a foreword to the research, said 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.
