Greens challenge other parties to introduce four-day week

The Green Party has challenged Simon Harris and Micheál Martin to explain in very clear terms why they are scared to even discuss the prospect of a four-day week.

A proposal to convene a Citizens’ Assembly that would examine the impact of switching to a four-day week forms a central part of the Green Party’s General Election manifesto. The party believes that such a move could have a transformative impact on people’s quality of life, particularly for parents who are trying to juggle work and family life.

Green Party candidate for Dublin Bay South, Hazel Chu, said that a four-day week has already been trialled around the world and at home, with very promising results. Trials in the UK, Germany, Iceland and here in Ireland have found immense well-being benefits for employees, including improved physical health, better sleep, and more frequent exercise.

The trials were popular among employers too, with little to no evidence of a drop in productivity or earnings. In the UK for example, over 90% of firms that participated in the trial continued with shorter work weeks for at least one year afterwards.

“It’s bizarre that the two conservative parties won’t even take the modest step of allowing a Citizens’ Assembly to examine this issue. The Green Party is taking a very responsible approach here – we want to study the evidence and examine it in detail but other parties are running scared. 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.

"One hundred 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.”

Along with the obvious health benefits, a four-day week would also help ease traffic congestion and boost capacity on public transport as well as offering a boost to our sports and arts sectors.

“The advent of artificial intelligence has the potential to transform the way we work but we must make sure it’s a transformation for the better,” Ms Chu added.“The world is changing, let’s not get caught standing still.”