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Again in the Twenties, Henry Ford bucked the norm of a six-day work week by establishing the now standardised 9-to-5 five-day work week with out lowering employees’ pay. It has been nearly a century since Ford grew to become a working week trendsetter and, in an period of distant working and environment friendly tech, some employers may marvel, “Why cannot we be trailblazers too?”
Enter the new child on the block: the four-day work week. Since the pandemic, the marketing campaign for four-day work weeks has been gaining steam. In assist, studies have proven implementing a four-day work week can result in elevated employee retention, expertise attraction, enhanced productiveness and improved worker morale, all of that are clearly key promoting factors in the extremely aggressive video games trade.
Nonetheless, earlier than recreation builders and publishers dive in headfirst to the four-day work week pool, it is value pausing and giving some thought to the legal ramifications of making the swap.
On this article, we’ll discover some legal concerns employers ought to ponder earlier than implementing any adjustments to their commonplace working days together with, however not restricted to, pay and hours, employment contracts and agreements, influence on vacation entitlement and greatest apply.
1. Pay and hours
At the beginning, employers want to contemplate how the introduction of a four-day work week impacts part-time staff. In lots of jurisdictions (together with the UK), part-time staff and employees are protected against being handled much less favourably than their full-time comparators.
How is that related to four-day work weeks? Properly, to make sure that part-timers aren’t handled any much less favourably than their full-time counterparts, if an employer switched to a four-day work week, part-time staff working 4 days every week would grow to be full-time staff and may, subsequently, obtain full-time equal salaries.
Equally, any part-time staff working lower than 4 days every week ought to see their salaries pro-rated primarily based on a brand new four-day work week full-time equal. Whereas this sounds simple in idea, if employers fail to pro-rata and amend salaries accurately, there’s not solely a threat of creating stress in the office as a consequence of unequal remedy of half time and full-time employees, but additionally an additional threat of a legal declare from an equality regulation perspective.
As well as, many video games companies have interaction employees by way of employer of file preparations or on a contract / contractor foundation; these varieties of engagements may add additional problems to the transfer of a four-day week that must be rigorously thought by means of earlier than corporations make the swap. Some thought additionally must be given to what days staff and contractors would truly be working. Virtually talking, everyone knows that change is not going to occur in a single day, so the early implementers of the four-day work week can be working in a world the place their purchasers and clients are nonetheless working underneath a five-day work week mannequin. Due to this fact, corporations might want to work out learn how to make the change of their working week work for them and their stakeholders.
For instance, will all staff and contractors get the identical break day each week? Will some staff be anticipated to be on name throughout their break day? And, in the final ditch ‘crunch’ interval previous to a launch deadline or for these builders and publishers with extra time insurance policies, how would a four-day working week truly work?
2. Employment contracts and agreements
A smart particular person as soon as stated it is harmful to go alone. So, earlier than embarking on the four-day work week journey, it is essential to get staff on board earlier than setting off.
Altering working days would quantity to a big modification in employment phrases that will require session and settlement between the employer and worker to differ their employment contracts. Care ought to be taken when making these variations as a number of clauses would possible be affected by the change in workdays. For instance, an employer ought to make sure that the employment contract comprises sturdy restrictions on working for others as staff could also be tempted to freelance on their non-working day, significantly throughout these financially tough occasions.
Video games corporations must assume lengthy and laborious about whether or not a four-day work week is viable for them as it could be troublesome to show again
A failure to observe a complete and honest course of may result in disparity between contractual phrases, employment contracts which might be unfit for goal and, in a worst-case state of affairs, potential legal disputes.
Relying on the quantity of employees, this might be fairly a big train. Larger employees numbers will improve the dangers of points arising that could be troublesome to rectify later down the line. It is subsequently essential to plan such adjustments out correctly and strategise earlier than diving straight in. Employers also needs to take a second have a look at their insurance policies or employees handbook to see if there’s something in there that may be affected by a transition to a four-day working week.
3. Influence on vacation entitlement
The legal guidelines concerning vacation entitlement are by no means simple, and the influence of adjustments to the working week would must be thought of fairly rigorously. That is significantly vital for UK corporations, as a failure to implement these adjustments accurately may end in claims like illegal deduction of wages and even constructive dismissal.
In idea, if an employer switches to a four-day week however retains the commonplace 37.5 to 40-hour working week, the staff’ vacation entitlement would keep the identical. Nonetheless, if the staff will likely be working lower than 35 hours, employers may doubtlessly scale back their vacation underneath present laws.
As an illustration, if an employer has supplied the statutory minimal vacation entitlement (28 days each year), there could also be scope to cut back this to 22.5 days each year (inclusive of financial institution holidays). As most video games companies provide greater than the statutory minimal, there’s more likely to be some flex factors right here to contemplate when crafting the general package deal.
Employers will even need to resolve what to do about financial institution holidays. For instance, if a financial institution vacation falls on a working day, employers may both select to permit staff to take this off and have a three-day working week or require the staff to take a unique break day. This is able to must be thought of rigorously in the context of the required days of work (as per part one above), given the majority of public holidays fall on a Monday.
4. Structuring
A key query value addressing from the get-go is what mannequin ought to be used when implementing a four-day work week. There is a selection to select from, starting from staff working 9am to 5pm 4 days every week on lowered pay to staff working ten hours per day, 4 days every week, on the identical pay (in any other case often called ‘compressed hours‘).
Alternatively, an employer may go for the commonplace four-day work week mannequin whereby staff would proceed to work the identical quantity of hours on the identical pay however must work extra effectively as the quantity of work would stay the identical. This latter possibility is what most have a tendency to imply by a shift to four-day working, however has (maybe understandably) resulted a couple of raised eyebrows inside some companies.
Whichever method an employer opts for, the outdated adage of ‘attempt before you purchase’ rings true right here. It is value most (if not all) employers implementing any adjustments on a purely trial foundation initially earlier than they really decide to the four-day work week for the long run, because it actually will not work for all companies.
Trials must be constructed rigorously and communicated successfully and clearly with employees. We might suggest designing SMART targets that may must be met to ensure that the four-day work week to be thought of viable, to keep away from dashing the hopes of staff if, following a trial, the employer decides that the mannequin is not fairly proper for his or her enterprise.
The important thing takeaways
There are some key legal concerns that corporations ought to have on their radar earlier than implementing a four-day work week:
- Perceive how the make-up of the workforce and their totally different contractual preparations may be affected by the swap
- Have a transparent plan on how the four-day work week would function and the way these adjustments can be carried out, allowing for any legal restrictions or concerns in your jurisdiction
- Take into account what liabilities may be related to making the change and the way greatest to mitigate these liabilities
- Evaluate employment contracts, contractor agreements and any contracts with employer of file suppliers and determine which clauses must be amended
- Evaluate staff’ vacation entitlements and calculate their pro-rated vacation entitlements (allowing for the influence of financial institution holidays)
- Take into account how a trial would function and the way this could be communicated to employees.
Remaining ideas
Whereas four-day work weeks may not be the norm in 2024, we have already seen a handful of corporations in the video games trade (and past) make the swap. In reality, apparently one third of employers anticipate the four-day week to be attainable for many employees inside the subsequent decade.
It is value implementing adjustments on a trial foundation initially as the four-day week will not work for all companies
If the instance set by the origins of the five-day work week are something to go by, a decade is about proper provided that it took round 14 years for Ford’s five-day mannequin to make its means into US laws. Change may, of course, come sooner – lest we not overlook, a four-day working week did kind half of the Labour social gathering’s 2019 election manifesto and there’s clearly the chance of a change of Authorities on the horizon if opinion polls are something to go by (though, notably, the Labour social gathering hasn’t circled again to this coverage lately).
In abstract, there’s clearly not a one measurement suits all method to four-day work weeks and what works for some employers might not work for all. In an trade the place acquiring and retaining expertise could make or break a studio and the place the looming shadow of crunch has not but been dispelled, the draw of a four-day work week is clear.
Nonetheless, video games corporations must assume lengthy and laborious about whether or not a four-day work week is a viable possibility for them as, as soon as an employer has made the dedication to take its first steps on the path to a four-day working week, it could be troublesome to show again. In the event that they do make the step, it is clearly crucial that the change is carried out correctly and does not expose the enterprise to pointless employment threat.