Lawyer explains chances of boss accepting four-day working week following new Government plans

A legal expert has issued advice on your chances of securing a four day working week under new plans laid out by Sir Keir Starmer's Labour government.

Starmer has instructed the Department for Business and Trade to explore introducing new employee rights, which mean you can ask your boss to do your work over four days rather than the standard five.

And in doing so, the Government has stressed that it would be an application which can very much be turned down by your employer.

“We have no plans to impose a four-day working week on employers or employees. Any changes to employment legislation will be consulted on, working in partnership with business," a Whitehall spokesperson said.

“Our Make Work Pay plan is designed around increasing productivity and creating the right conditions for businesses to support sustained economic growth."

Those applying for a four day week would have to do 'compressed hours' whereby you do your contracted hours over four days, rather than five.

It comes just days after leaked plans showed the prime minister is set to launch a huge crackdown on smoking which will include beer gardens, with critics claiming that it will hurt hospitality businesses.

And in response to the plans, one employment law firm, BDB Pitmans, has issued advice and eight reasons why your employer can refuse a request to go to a four day working week.

Keir Starmer's government is proposing the four day working week plans (Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)

Nicholas Le Riche, a partner in the Employment Law team at BDB Pitmans, explains that while compressed hours might be a dream for the employee, it could be quite the opposite for your boss.

But he has not gone as far as saying employers will be terrified of the proposals, given the move to remote working during the Covid pandemic, with millions then moving in to a hybrid working pattern once the lockdowns ended.

"I wouldn’t expect employers to be ‘petrified’ by these proposals given that working compressed hours is not unusual and businesses are now well accustomed to dealing with flexible working requests," Le Riche said.

“However, what employers will want is clarity on their ability to refuse these types of requests and how tough it will be to show that compressed working isn’t ‘feasible’."

The working week could be cut to four days for some (Getty Stock Images)

He added: "If employers are still able to rely on the current eight reasons to show that a request isn’t reasonably feasible then this could provide some reassurance to businesses.

"What this change is likely to do is force employers to show why flexible working can’t be accepted rather than require the employee to show why it should."

Eight reasons to refuse flexible or compressed working

According to BDB Pitmans, the following eight reasons will be the most common reasons cited if your request to go to a four day working week is denied:

• The burden of additional costs
• Inability to reorganise work amongst existing staff
• Inability to recruit additional staff
• Detrimental impact on quality
• Detrimental impact on performance
• Detrimental impact on ability to meet customer demand
• Insufficient work during proposed work periods
• Planned structural changes to a business