Edinburgh council should trial four-day workweek after success elsewhere
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A four-day workweek for city staff should be considered to help fill empty roles and aid with poor health, according to a councillor.
Several councils in the UK have expressed interest in testing a four-day workweek, with South Cambridgeshire District Council being the first to trial it.
Now, Green councillor Claire Miller wants Edinburgh to join that list, saying it could provide a new way to help with staffing and morale.
In a motion to full council next week, Miller says officers should look at whether the city should trial it – and bring data together on how staff are doing with the current five-day week.
In it, she writes that the council has 'long-term challenges around budget pressures, recruitment into 'hard to fill' roles, use of agency and overtime, and indicators of poorer worker health such as illness absence rates.'
Further, she says that unions in the city support four-day weeks, with them citing health and wellbeing benefits that they argue come without productivity losses.
Miller wants council officers to collate information on staff retention, health and productivity, among other factors, by September.
Additionally, she wants them to evaluate four-day workweek trials in other 'relevant organisations', to see if they can inform a possible trial in Edinburgh.
South Cambridgeshire District Council was the first in the UK to trial a four-day working week, with some staff working 32 hours a week but getting paid for 40 from March 2023.
It is now considering making the change permanent, with the 15-month trial among 450 office and waste collection staff being found successful.
An academic study of the trial found that it reduced turnover by 39% and saved the council over £300,000 in agency worker fees.
Additionally, it found that a range of council services either saw no change or improvements in delivery.
Regular planning permission applications were cleared a week and a half earlier, and about 15% more major planning applications were cleared within recommended timescales.
In only two areas – council rent collection and reletting council homes, performance decreased.
Staff said that the shortened workweek had helped their morale and physical health, with staff complaints falling during the trial period.
Additionally, less council staff were found to be going on benefits.
However, one local councillor raised concerns about council staff working second jobs on their time off.
Some 16% of staff taking part in the trial were found to be doing other paid work in their free time – but a council survey saw most of these staff members say they had started doing this before the trial began.
In 2024, the UK government withdrew opposition to a four-day working week for English local authorities.
Previously, it had published guidance that effectively prevented councils from trying it, saying it did not 'offer value for money for residents'.
Among other councils, the Blaenau Gwent and North Yorkshire local authorities are exploring either a trial of, or a permanent shift to, a four-day week.
Cllr Miller's motion will be discussed at the next full Edinburgh council meeting, set to take place on Thursday, 19 June, which can be viewed here.
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