Ireland’s Minister for Public Expenditure has backed away from a campaign to introduce a four-day working week in the country, saying it would add at least €4.2 billion ($A6.6 billion) to the public sector wage bill.
The Minister, Michael McGrath said the move would also pose a “huge challenge” to emergency services provision, teaching children and childcare arrangements.
“With this in mind, and in light of the large potential costs and disruption to critical services, I do not believe it is the right time to consider a transition to a four-day week,” Mr McGrath said.
The Government has requested that research on the proposal be carried out and Mr McGrath’s comments come after the announcement of plans for a six-month pilot project.
The experiment will be run by Four Day Week Ireland, which includes the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, the National Women’s Council of Ireland, Friends of the Earth Ireland, academics and some private companies.
The pilot, which is to run from January, will assess the impact of shifting employees to the shorter working week while still on the same pay.
Groups in the United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Spain are running similar trials.
Mr McGrath said he had two main concerns — the cost to the taxpayer and continuity of public services.
The Minister said the need to recruit more staff, particularly for front-line services, meant “potentially significant costs”, and an analysis of the costs covering more than 342,000 Public Servants in nearly 200 organisations would involve “a high degree of complexity”.
“At a very high level, paying people for four days but providing services to the citizens over five, and in some cases seven days, would add at least a fifth to the current pay bill of approximately €21 billion ($A33.1 billion),” Mr McGrath said.
“That equates to an extra €4.2 billion that would have to be found to deliver the same level of services,” he said.
“This is likely a conservative estimate, given the premiums associated with overtime and Agency staffing, which would likely be required.”
Mr McGrath wondered how a four-day week would allow schools to teach children properly.
“How would the emergency services — hospitals, fire brigades, lifeguards and the Gardaí (police) — operate on a four-day week?” he asked.
A global petition for a reduced working week, supported by Four Day Week Ireland, has been launched.
Ireland, 2 July 2020
