Current Affairs The Labour Party

[Tubey]

I get that but aren't Britain's workers among the least productive in Europe? I think other countries will look towards ideas like this. At least I hope they would.

Productivity can be addressed by ideas like flexible working. It's not addressed by adding a 20% tax on productivity on to employers, especially when we're going to be losing our competitiveness economically due to Brexit.

If we did it, businesses would move, other countries would take advantage of increased business and the UK would suffer. Not only that, loads of businesses would go under - small businesses would suddenly be offering 20% less service to clients but keeping the same wage overheads.

It's just yet another extremely stupid, 'bold' idea, driven by ideology. Work and enterprise isn't inherently evil.

 

[neil999]

I've worked in public, private small and big in my time mate. I think what would be good, is a conversation about greater flexibility (but from an employee perspective). I'd say there was a certain meanness to many employers in often keeping people in work at certain times when they could easily let them go, or have a more flexible-family friendly approach.

In general it makes sense. We have lots of people out of work, and people working the longest hours in Europe, yet we remain very unproductive (there is a clue in all of that). However ensuring you manage a plan that could work is a different thing.

My worry for Labour, or any other party is it gets pitched in a quite narrow workerist way, as opposed to a far broader discussion about productivity, freshness, flexibility and how to best utilise people in the work place. Piling more hours onto people as a model hasn't really worked.

This! why didnt they propose a policy/discussion around working hours with a view to reducing the working week

 

[dannyboy]

I don't disagree, but you have to work with where you are rather than where you want to be.

Definitely mate. I do think it's good to have the ambition to shorten the working week though. Especially for people in the teaching profession. Doubtlessly the workload puts a lot of talented folk off joining, consequently we end up with the likes of me...

 

[peteblue]

I get that but aren't Britain's workers among the least productive in Europe? I think other countries will look towards ideas like this. At least I hope they would.

No......

 

[Barnfred 55]

Not to mention the growing number of economists predicting a recession around the corner.

Time for a drink I think.

 

[dannyboy]

No......

Could be better...

 

[larrygobfiend]

Honestly, who works flat out for 40 hours in a working week? I have to admit that I procrastinate for at least a quarter of the time and I know I'm not alone. A lot of my friends who are civil servants openly admit to "dossing about" a bit in the workplace. I'm not convinced that there would be a massive drop in productivity. In Germany, they do less hours, but work harder when they're in work and they seem to do okay...

 

[LouReedwalkonthewildside]

You would have been saying that about the idea of having a weekend too in times gone by. I'm not saying it will be easily accomplished but why not be ambitious and try to implement measures that will improve people's lives? What seems radical now, might be not seem so radical in 20 years.

As an idea it's commendable mate, and as you say we should be ambitious, but a 32 hour week could easily have the opposite effect, less productivity (maybe) less profits for business', higher prices for their goods, means higher cost of living. I know it's only conjecture, but a lot of it is down to business playing ball, and I know they could easily hire extra staff, pay overtime etc, but they may not react to kindly to feeling pushed around, especially if the unions got back the power they once had.

 

[Barnfred 55]

Honestly, who works flat out for 40 hours in a working week? I have to admit that I procrastinate for at least a quarter of the time and I know I'm not alone. A lot of my friends who are civil servants openly admit to "dossing about" a bit in the workplace. I'm not convinced that there would be a massive drop in productivity. In Germany, they do less hours, but work harder when they're in work and they seem to do okay...

Loads of people do work flat out mate. Which is why I asked you what business you were in.

I worked for 36 years for a Global Bank before I retired. I did many jobs in different departments during that period and don't think I ever did a job were I had anything like the luxury you speak of. In fact I usually worked with a big pending tray which I never saw the bottom of despite putting in an average of around 10 unpaid extra hours per week.

By contrast, many of my ex colleagues changed jobs to local and central government depts and they frequently spoke of a completely alien work culture in which you received a set quota per day that you were expected to meet. But once you met that quota that was it. The wife of a close colleague went to work at the Birkenhead Land Registry and, on her first day, finished her quota before lunch. So she went to see if anybody else needed help. Big mistake. Nobody spoke to her for a week until she "learnt" how they do things there. Now I'm not suggesting that all Public Service employees are in the same boat. You only have to look at police, teachers and health workers to know that's not the case.

 

[dwightschrute]

Productivity can be addressed by ideas like flexible working. It's not addressed by adding a 20% tax on productivity on to employers, especially when we're going to be losing our competitiveness economically due to Brexit.

If we did it, businesses would move, other countries would take advantage of increased business and the UK would suffer. Not only that, loads of businesses would go under - small businesses would suddenly be offering 20% less service to clients but keeping the same wage overheads.

It's just yet another extremely stupid, 'bold' idea, driven by ideology. Work and enterprise isn't inherently evil.

Crunch Mode: programming to the extreme - The Relationship Between Hours Worked and Productivity

cs.stanford.edu

Is 40 Hours a Week Too Much? Here's What History and Science Say · Spoke

Discover why we work 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week, and learn if that’s really ideal. Learn how HR can inspire changes to the standard workweek.

www.askspoke.com

We're primarily a services country and theres more evidence that productivity is better or at least not a negative with less hours worked

• During the first two months of 1974, government officials in the United Kingdom limited the workweek to three days in an attempt to save energy. Though people were working two fewer days a week, production only dropped 6%. People worked fewer hours, but they were more productive and less likely to miss work.
• From 2000-2008, the French government limited the maximum working hours per week to 35. In a survey of French employees, more than half said they were happier working reduced hours and more able to achieve a balance between work and life.
• From 2015-2017, a Swedish nursing home conducted a two-year experiment where its nurses switched from working eight-hour days to working six-hour days for the same pay. During this time, sick leave dropped by 10%. Nurses who were part of the trial claimed they were healthier, more energetic, and more alert.

 

[Jebus_lives]

No......

The current cabinet seem to think so.

 

[Barnfred 55]

Re LPs plans to abolish Private schools and seize their assets on behalf of the state. I've been through most of these pages since the policy was voted for yesterday, and I'm a little surprised that nobody has mentioned the "C" word yet. And no, I don't mean Jeremy Corbyn.

So here we go. For me, it is exactly the sort of act you would expect from a Communist regime.

 

[Methuselah]

It absolutely isn't. The NHS serves the entire population, and changing it suddenly so that everyone loses out would be a disaster politically.

Suggesting that the under 7% of kids who currently go to private school go to a private school instead is going to affect at most 7% of the families in the UK, who are mostly from a part of society that are probably never going to vote Labour. It is possibly however going to appeal to the 93% of families whose kids have to compete with the 7% that had better schools, though as I said given the % of journalists, politicians and the rest who went to (and/or send their kids to) a private school will no doubt lead to a great deal of negative and not at all self-interested comment.

Diane Abbott's going to be upset having to transfer her kid (s?) into State education.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Re LPs plans to abolish Private schools and seize their assets on behalf of the state. I've been through most of these pages since the policy was voted for yesterday, and I'm a little surprised that nobody has mentioned the "C" word yet. And no, I don't mean Jeremy Corbyn.

So here we go. For me, it is exactly the sort of act you would expect from a Communist regime.

Now you've done it.

 

[Pudsey]

Logically then if you insist all schooling is free then surely all college tuition should be too? I'd support removing tax relief to provide more bursaries with the cash saved and a return to grants for tertiary level education.