Islington Council tight-lipped on four-day week after government’s policy shift

Islington Town Hall. Photograph: Islington Citizen

Islington Council has refused to say whether its new freedom to introduce a four-day week for staff has affected its own policy.

On Friday, the government opened the door for local governments to introduce shorter working weeks for employees if they so wished, after dropping the previous Conservative administration’s official objection.

Last year, a Cambridgeshire council drew ministers’ ire when it began trialling reduced working days—only to be instructed to stop.

On Friday, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government officially reversed this stance when sent a letter to South Cambridgeshire District Council which said that local government was “rightly responsible for the management and organisation of [its] own workforces”.

But when asked if this would impact Islington Council’s working practices, a Town Hall spokesperson was tight-lipped.

Opposition councillors from the Green Party have previously advocated that the local authority bring in a four-day work week.

At a budget meeting in February, they put forward an amendment to the council’s policy suggesting the Town Hall embrace the practice of reduced working days as a way of limiting its spending on agency staff and sick leave.

Last year, South Cambridgeshire said that cutting staff hours by 20 per cent had led to improved recruitment and reduce spending on temporary workers.

At the time, minister Lee Rowley warned that the government would “take necessary steps in the coming months ahead to ensure that this practice is ended within local government”.

Angela Rayner, then shadow levelling-up secretary, criticised her Conservative opponents for “micromanaging” local authorities.

Meanwhile, on Friday, tube drivers called off their strike after they were offered a four-day week, a pay rise and fewer working hours, in a “ground-breaking” deal between Transport for London (TfL) and unions Aslef and RMT.

Another pilot for a four-day week is also underway across England, with an estimated 1,000 workers from 17 businesses signed up.

The Conservatives have said businesses are “petrified” about the government giving workers stronger rights to work one less day per week.

In August, Rayner said the arrangement was “no threat to the economy”, but the government has not officially backed a four-day week.