The UK’s only part-time work for full-time pay council has come under significant pressure after concerning results emerged from its 18-month four-day week trial.
Lib Dem-run South Cambridgeshire District Council trialled a four-day week between January 2023 and March 2024 – although the part-time work for full-time pay arrangements linger on by stealth, despite the trial’s completion.
Now the results are out for everybody to see – and it is not good news, as was raised by opposition councillors at a council meeting on Thursday.
Cllr Heather Williams, Leader of the Conservative Opposition, noted there had been 53 process changes in 18 months, including automation, operational efficiency and AI, and yet performance targets have not been amended.
This was all but admitted by the Lib Dems, who said “the four-day week is not something that we have introduced on its own”.
Cllr Heather Williams also asked how it can truly be a four-day week when 37% of council staff are propping up the organisation by working more than four days a week to get their work done. The Lib Dems refused to answer this concern.
Cllr Dr Richard Williams highlighted that nearly 1 in 6 council staff reported using their paid day off to undertake other paid work – undermining the trial’s supposed wellbeing benefits and losing productivity for the council.
Cllr Tom Bygott asked if the Leader considered it acceptable that 31% of staff report feeling more stressed under the four-day week – 72% of whom were adversely impacted by that stress.
Cllr Bygott also reiterated concerns that each day lost to staff sickness is now worth 25% of each staff member’s weekly efforts, raising concerns about the productivity lost by the council.
Cllr Dr Shrobona Bhattacharya pointed out that a four-day week for other public services such as schools, the NHS or fire crews would be untenable – so a four-day week for some and not others is simply unfair.
It seems that the four-day week is not quite the success story the Lib Dems have been trumpeting.
Forcing hardworking residents to pay for the council staff to have an extra day off each week is insulting.
After the meeting, Cllr Heather Williams reflected:
“The reluctance of the Liberal Democrats to scrutiny on this matter is getting more and more concerning.
“Over the last 18 months, I have had to fight for the right to access information, have been personally attacked when trying to scrutinise reports, and had numerous questions go unanswered.
"This is becoming about much more than whether or not to pay staff to have a day off each week. It is becoming about the battle to ensure the administration can be scrutinised and held to account by both opposition and residents.
“We’ve left the meeting today still not knowing when the public consultation will be or when elected councillors will be able to vote on this – all while the clock is ticking because we know the further down this road we go, the harder it will be to return.”
