<?xml encoding=”utf-8″ ?????????>
Supermarket chain Morrisons has scrapped four-day working weeks for its head office staff following feedback.
The company introduced the scheme for people working at its Bradford headquarters in 2020, reducing their weekly working hours from 40 to 37.5.
As part of it, employees were expected to work 13 Saturdays, one every four weeks, each year.
The change will mean about 2,000 employees will work 37.5 hours over a four-and-a-half-day week.
According to The Grocer, Morrisons scrapped the scheme after complaints from employees about weekend working.
A company spokesperson said: “The Saturdays have now been dropped following colleague feedback and we will work an extra half-day per week instead.
“The hours remain unchanged.”
Saturday working was introduced to help head office workers support the company’s 497 stores which open on weekends.
Joe Ryle, director of the 4-Day Week Campaign said: “Morrisons four-day week experiment was an important first step but still quite a long way off a true four-day, 32-hour working week.
“Being required to work on Saturday’s was never going to be popular and isn’t really a four-day week.”
The campaign believes a shorter working week with no loss of pay would “benefit workers, employers, the economy, our society and our environment”.
Mr Ryle said he “welcomed” the continued reduction in staff working hours for Morrisons staff.
The company’s change in policy comes a week after supermarket chain Asda introduced a four-day working week.
A 2022 four-day working week trial involving almost 3,000 workers at 61 UK companies was found to have “extensive benefits”, particularly for employees’ well-being.
Fifty-six of the firms involved said they would retain the policy following the trial.
However UK councils pursuing a four-day working week are being threatened with financial penalties by the government amid an increasingly bitter row between ministers and town halls over post-pandemic working practices.
