The Labour party has recently announced its plans to reduce the average working week to just 32 hours within the next 10 years which will move the country outside the EU’s working time directive (WTD). Meanwhile the Conservatives are also planning to increase minimum wages. These controversial plans will introduce further challenges to a country where productivity is already under scrutiny and currently falling behind many parts of the world. As a comparison, average working hours across Asia are in excess of 50 hours with the USA running with a basic 40-hour week and a much lower holiday allowance nudging the country to a real 42-hour equivalent.  

Since the financial market crash of 2008, the UK has lagged behind other countries in its productivity levels with the Office for National Statistics reporting a growth of only 0.5% in 2018 compared to an average 2% growth in previous years. Perversely Labour’s plans to reduce the hours worked within the UK might go some way to improving this, as the workforce would need to be more efficient with the remaining time and in theory this would boost the countries productivity. France may certainly argue this has been demonstrated, their aggressive approach to the WTD has introduced a strong appetite to automation and the country is well ahead in the deployment of such technologies, consequently France is 30% more productive per hour worked than the UK. This could, however, be a double-edged sword because by increasing employee workloads through the reduction of the number of hours in the working week, could lead to higher levels of stress, poor staff morale and higher staff attrition. In order to mitigate the potential negative impact of reducing the working week from 5 days to 4, organisations could turn to automation technologies such as Machine Learning and RPA.