Madam, – Rather than cut levels of public service pay, the Government should look at putting large sections of the public service on a four-day week, as has happened in industry. That would immediately reduce much of the public service pay bill by 20 per cent, but would give workers an additional leisure day to compensate for the reduced pay packet.
This would lead to far less resentment than if the same level of work was expected for less pay. Further, numerous studies have shown that a shorter working week increases work-time productivity, so the actual work done would decrease by only a small amount. Offices which need to be open five or six days a week could stagger the workforce, with some working from Monday to Thursday, others Wednesday to Saturday, for example. A four-day week would be feasible for many parts of the public service, including my own, the university sector. It might be that we would be able to teach fewer modules to the increasing number of students we have, and do a little less research, but so be it.
RTÉ could shut down broadcasting between midnight and 6am, or whatever time slot was felt appropriate. The Government could also then afford to lift the crippling blanket moratorium on hiring replacement staff for those who leave or retire, and the broad four-day week could generate enough savings to allow currently short-staffed frontline services, such as nursing and the Garda Síochána, to employ additional staff.
Each sector should be given the flexibility to agree with its staff a range of options as to how the four days would be worked, to optimise productivity. Workers with young children would be able to save a day’s childcare costs, and the current income tax regime would mean that the take-home pay would come down by less than 20 per cent. Working people would be less stressed and, consequently, less liable to fall ill.
Everybody would win. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Divide and rule is used as a common strategy in politics as it has been for subduing peoples down the ages. That this principle is being deployed by the Government, in pitting the public and private sectors against each other, is plain to see. – Yours, etc,