Editorial: Four-day work week is the wrong move

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The City of Miramichi is considering permanently adopting a compressed work week after trying it for the past year. We’re not convinced this is the right step.

Staff who participated in the trial completed surveys saying the move has boosted their morale, and city officials say it hasn’t impacted service delivery or cost the municipality extra money. Those are positive things, but experiments into workplace productivity should be led by the private sector, not on the public’s dime.

Aside from the internal surveys of non-unionized city employees taking part in the trial, many potential benefits of a compressed work week are based largely on anecdotal evidence, especially considering most of the private sector hasn’t adopted a four-day schedule for employees.

We’re concerned the outcome of a compressed week won’t be the ill-defined productivity gains some four-day-work-week advocates have promised. Instead, the immediate effect will likely be an artificial increase in labour costs, with taxpayers footing the bill.

The private sector most directly faces this pressure, and unlike local governments, businesses can’t simply increase taxes to cover the shortfall if the model fails. If municipalities believe they can provide the same service levels while giving employees an extra day off each week, they should consider ways to reduce their workforce or cut costs.

The job of municipal officials is to get the best possible value for tax dollars, and we’re not sure if that can be achieved by shifting a few work schedules around. If the private sector goes this way, municipalities can consider following suit; but they shouldn’t be leading on the four-day week.