The issue of shorter working time is likely to be widely discussed in the post-coronavirus era. Undoubtedly, cuts in hours will be proposed by many employers as the furlough scheme winds down – and in many areas where it was never applied. But there are many worthwhile discussions regarding reduced working hours which don’t penalise workers. In fact, they can benefit them.

A new report commissioned by the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions (CSEU) – four main manufacturing unions, Unite, GMB, Prospect and Community – explores how reducing working hours might be a tool to improve workers’ living standards in the economy of the coming years.

Thirty years ago the CSEU and its then affiliates ran a campaign called the ‘Drive For 35’ based on a strategy of securing reduced working time in key engineering companies. It formed one branch of a wider effort by unions across Europe and was co-ordinated at international level.  

The CSEU unions built up a substantial dispute fund to sustain industrial action when needed, with workers in the industry donating one hour’s pay each week to the fund. As a result working hours in the industry reduced from a standard 39 hours to 37 hours, which set the pace for reductions in working time across UK manufacturing.

When the CSEU suspended the campaign there were still millions of pounds in the dispute fund – but, because of legal arguments, the money stayed locked away until the High Court recently unlocked the funds. The fund is now controlled by the Alex Ferry Foundation, named after the CSEU General Secretary who lead the campaign.

Last year the CSEU Executive Committee and its conference decided to prepare the ground for another push on the issue of working time – be that shorter hours, shorter and flexible shifts, longer holidays, earlier retirements, greater parental leave or other forms of reduction.

This initiative is now supported by a new report, ‘Making up for Lost Time,’ launched by the New Economics Foundation and the CSEU which examines the case for shorter working time and how improvements have been won by workers and their unions across the globe.

Workers who are now returning to work are rightly nervous and worried about their future. The Covid-19 crisis means that the economic architecture of work – coupled with a greater use of artificial intelligence and greater productivity – makes it inevitable that reductions in working time will soon be on the bargaining agenda. 

The report itself looks at case studies where reductions in working time have been secured, including Bentley Motors in Crewe, Airbus at Broughton, Lancashire, and working time agreements reached by the Canadian union Unifor, Toyota in Sweden and Bosch Diesel in the Czech Republic.

It also explored the landmark agreement secured by German union IG Metall, ‘My Life – My Time, Rethinking Work,’ which secured significant temporary reductions in working time to accommodate a better work-life balance.

As Ian Waddell, the General Secretary of the CSEU says: “One common feature will be workers spending more time at home, possibly forced to stay away from work. New ways to deliver work, to communicate and to co-operate are being found. This ‘quiet revolution’ may well be the key to unlocking a new drive for a better balance between work and home; a fairer division of time. It is the next step in a campaign for shorter working time.”