Firms ‘should offer four-day week’

All employers should offer their staff the chance to work a four-day week, experts have suggested. And they claimed that gardening could be the surprising solution to many of the problems faced by the country right now, with firms urged to provide a green space for their workers to plant fruit and vegetables.

Andrew Simms, of the New Economics Foundation, and co-author Mollie Conisbee said that growing food and gardening can be good for mental as well as physical health among workers. Making urban spaces more green would provide more pleasant living and working environments while also making cities more resilient to fluctuating food prices, they added.

Meanwhile, they argued that a shorter working week could boost employment while also giving people the chance to fulfil tasks that they would otherwise have to pay others to do, such as being carers. Overall, people would be happier and healthier and this would also ease the burden on public services, the co-authors believe.

IBB’s Employment Team provides advice on the employment aspects of all major business decisions. To contact a member of the team for advice, call us on 01895 207892 or email employment@ibblaw.co.uk