Workers, as well as bosses and shareholders, should benefit from technological advances, say trade unions.
Workers should be able to work less whilst getting paid the same amount, the Trade Union Congress (TUC) is expected to argue today.
The general secretary of the TUC, Frances O’Grady, has released the text of a speech that calls for workers to share the benefits of technological advances.
Speaking on the TUC’s 150th anniversary, O’Grady will say that “in the 19th century, unions campaigned for an eight-hour day. In the twentieth century, we won the right to a two-day weekend and paid holidays.
“So, for the 21st century, let’s lift our ambition again. I believe that in this century we can win a four-day working week, with decent pay for everyone.
“It’s time to share the wealth from new technology. Not allow those at the top to grab it for themselves.”
According to the TUC, four in five employees want to reduce their working hours without having their pay cut, yet 1.4 million people in the UK work seven days a week.
This is despite British economist John Maynard Keynes predicting, back in 1930, that people would soon work just 15 hours a week.
However, UK workers are already less productive than their counterparts in other advanced economies and productivity has not increased since the 2008 financial crisis.
The average French worker produces the same amount by Thursday afternoon that their British counterpart produces in a week.