Four-Day Working Week For All is a Realistic Goal This Century, UK Trade Unions Say (theguardian.com)

Advances in technology mean that a four-day week working week is a realistic goal for most people by the end of this century, the leader of the UK's trade union movement has said. From a report: Frances O'Grady, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), used her speech to the organisation's 150th annual gathering to insist that evolving technology and communications should cut the number hours spent at work. Speaking in Manchester on Monday, O'Grady said: "In the 19th century, unions campaigned for an eight-hour day. In the 20th century, we won the right to a two-day weekend and paid holidays. So, for the 21st century, let's lift our ambition again. I believe that in this century we can win a four-day working week, with decent pay for everyone. It's time to share the wealth from new technology, not allow those at the top to grab it for themselves."

A report by the organisation says postwar economists promised employees would be working a 15-hour week by now and that polls showed a four-day week would be most people's preference. "Instead, new technology is threatening to intensify working lives. For some, the on-demand economy has meant packaging work into ever-smaller pieces of time," the report reads. "This is a return to the days of piece-work, creating a culture where workers are required to be constantly available to work." More than 1.4 million people work seven days a week, with 3.3 million working more than 45 hours a week, according to the report.

Comments

Re:Wasn't this in the Jetsons?

[youngone]

You should have another look at the summary. The piece is from the TUC, a UK union group.
Workers in the UK have proper healthcare regardless of how many hours they work, or who they work for, they don't have to go cap in hand to their overlords hoping to avoid bankruptcy if they or their children get sick.
It's what civilised countries do.

The Krell's problem wasn't that they got lazy

[rsilvergun]

or suffered from Ennui. Their problem was they lost control of their machines and were killed by them. So long as we don't hook out machines up to our brains while we sleep I think we'll just do fine.

Also, you're entire post is predicated on the idea that if people aren't working to survive they don't know what to do with themselves. That couldn't be further away from the truth if it tried. People can and will keep themselves busy with hobbies, family life, researching their own interests, etc. The only reason why we have this notion that if you don't work you're life is worthless is that it was instilled in us by our ruling class. Given enough education and critical thinking we can get over it when the time comes.

Re:The Krell's problem wasn't that they got lazy

[DNS-and-BIND]

You kidding? People won't keep themselves busy every day. They'll lounge around, play the lottery, watch professional sports, get drunk and high, and play World of Warcraft. I think you're basing your ideas on high-conscientiousness people you hang out with. Societies that work are awesome societies - societies that value idleness are shitholes. You can tell shithole countries because when you walk down the street in the middle of the day you can see all the young men sitting around doing nothing, drinking, gambling, playing games. This is what people do when they value idleness, not research their own interests. How laughable.

Decent pay

[manu0601]

Four-days week is desirable, but we should focus on decent pay first, because this is what is under attack now.

A four-days week job is meritless if you need to have two of them to get decent income.

Re:One less day is only a few minutes less work

[Narcocide]

What I ended up doing was buying some books and training myself to be qualified for a better job. And then I took the first offer that came along. Reading programming textbooks counted for appearing busy. Good thing for them they didn't let me become important to the company, or they may have missed me when I left.