Unions have revived calls for the Australian government to legislate a four-day work week, but Treasurer Jim Chalmers has hosed down speculation as he prepares to host a three-day gathering of experts focused on figuring out how to boost Australia’s national productivity.

Australians would be paid the same and earn the same benefits for working just four days instead of five, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) said as it revives the long-simmering push to revisit the standard five-day working week.

Workers “deserve to benefit from productivity gains and technological advances,” ACTU – which represents 38 affiliated unions and almost two million workers – said in arguing that Australians are working “record-long hours [that have] contributed to the productivity slowdown…. reducing working hours is key to lifting living standards.”

While a four-day work week would be an appropriate way of giving many workers shorter working hours, ACTU president Michele O’Neil said that others could be given the same benefits through changes such as having more time off, increasing annual leave, or designing “fairer rosters.”

Shorter hours “deliver improved productivity and allow working people to live happier, healthier and more balanced lives,” O’Neil said, adding that “a fair go in the age of AI should be about lifting everyone’s living standards, instead of just boosting corporate profits and executive bonuses.”

Many paths to productivity

The ACTU’s push comes as stakeholders fight to shape the agenda at the Economic Reform Roundtable, which will bring together business, union, government, and other experts to discuss ways to boost productivity, enhance economic resilience, and strengthen budget sustainability.

A recent Treasury discussion paper noted the importance of industrial competition and dynamism, which have been flagging in Australia for over 20 years – with increasing industry concentration and mark-ups that have contributed to a “widening productivity gap”.

Yet for all the unions’ enthusiasm about a four-day week – something the Greens have promoted since a policy launch in March – Chalmers said the issue isn’t on the agenda for the event, which comes amidst promising economic indicators and surging burnout amongst ‘languishing’ workers.

Shorter hours would allow workers to deliver improved productivity and lead more balanced lives, ACTU president Michele O'Neil said. Photo: Shutterstock

Strong numbers – including an interest rate cut, easing inflation, and new ABS figures that declared annual real wages growth the strongest in five years – “put us in good stead as we confront all of the economic uncertainty that surrounds us,” he told a press conference this week.

The four-day week “hasn’t been our focus,” he said, arguing that “productivity is the most serious economic challenge we have in our economy” and flagging a “longstanding… productivity challenge” that will make improving waning productivity figures “the central focus” of the roundtable.

Support for the four-day week surging

Business groups pushed back, with Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox slamming ACTU’s “populist, anti-productivity thought bubble” as “measures that will turn back time, cut productivity, make Australia less attractive to much-needed investment and lead to fewer jobs.”

At odds is the definition of ‘productivity’, which ACTU sees as workers doing the same work in less time – but businesses see as workers doing more work in the same amount of time, exposing a philosophical chasm that’s sure to drive heated discussions at the roundtable.

Even as he juggles competing ideas about productivity and fights to keep the roundtable’s discussions as focused as possible, Chalmers faces a growing body of evidence substantiating the benefits of normalising a four-day work week.

Reports suggest that companies trialling four-day weeks find employees to be as productive or more so, with the 4 Day Week Global organisation tracking trials in a growing range of companies worldwide – many of which won’t return to five-day weeks.

A study published last month in Nature Human Behaviour found that a six-month trial of four-day weeks, including nearly 3,000 employees in over 140 companies in Australia and elsewhere, are an “effective organisational intervention for enhancing workers’ wellbeing.”

The change has been credited with improving employees’ mental health, work-life balance, and overall life satisfaction – although experts warn that four-day weeks must be implemented as a complement to work-from-home and other flexible work options, and not a replacement.

Pressure to embrace a nationwide four-day work week reflects positive Australian experiences and global trends: in February 2022 Belgium became the first country to legislate the four-day week for employees who want it, while Tokyo signed on earlier this year, and Dubai followed in July.

Whether or not the four-day work week needs to be legislated at a national level, or implemented company by company within the context of existing flexible work arrangements, remains to be seen – but the early benefits to date could well give ACTU’s campaign momentum.

If, that is, ACTU and its chorus of supporters spruiking the four-day week’s benefits can overcome naysayers who argue that their definition of ‘productivity’ is just wrong.

“The ACTU of course is entitled to put forward whatever ideas it likes,” a non-committal Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said as he welcomed “public debate and discourse” but confirmed “the government has no plans” to change working hours for now.