Northern Ireland should embrace a four-day working week: workers deserve a better work-life balance.

The discussion on the introduction of the four-day week has opened again and rightly so, but we can expect the same hysteria that greeted the introduction of the weekend of for workers to follow as it did a hundred years ago. Yet when two day weekends became the norm the sky did not fall, and productivity improved. Just like then work life balance is important for workers and their families in every sector of the economy and workforce.

The four-day week is a reality in the Netherlands and the 4-Day Week Foundation which is leading the drive for change in Britain, says that 56 of the 61 companies that signed up for the four-day week pilot decided to stick with it after the scheme ended. They cite an average of 35% increased revenue, and a 57% decline in staff turnover rates, during the trial period.

There are now 260 companies in the UK signed up to the four-day week. The Workers Party believes it is time Northern Ireland followed that example. The Tory party and others bemoan the fact that employers have introduced the four-day week without cutting wages, but this is hardly surprising as they believe that sweating the workforce is the capitalist way and workers are there to be exploited.

Workers produce the wealth of the world and are entitled to share in the benefits and work life balance is only a fraction of what they are owed. Workers full rights and rewards, we know can only be achieved through a socialist system of government but in the meantime the Workers Party will support the workers demands for a better balance in their working lives.