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Will four-day workweeks soon become less of a pipe dream? You’d be hard-pressed to find an Aussie who wouldn’t hope so. Shorter workweeks aren’t just a win for employees (hello long weekends, every weekend); trials have shown they can boost productivity, improve job satisfaction and reduce stress across the board.
If you’re on board for a four-day workweek, Australia’s major employee unions have your back. They’re pushing the federal government to legislate a shorter 30.4-hour week as part of a review of Australia’s national employment standards – the first in 13 years.
As part of its submission, the Australian Services Union (ASU) – which represents more than 135,000 workers across industries like transport, social services, local government, airlines and the private legal sector – has called for a standardised four-day workweek, with no loss of pay. The union’s submission points to the growing complexity of modern working life, as well as the rise of AI, as reasons a four-day workweek is both necessary and achievable for businesses.
The ASU’s proposal follows a separate submission from the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) – the peak union body representing around 2 million workers across all affiliated unions in Australia – urging the federal government to reduce maximum weekly hours from 38 to 35 and increase hourly rates by 8.5 per cent as an initial step towards a four-day workweek.
The ACTU has also called for annual leave to be increased from four to five weeks per year, and from five to six weeks for regular shift workers. If introduced, it would mark the first rise in the minimum standard since the mid-1970s – a change the ASU has also backed, again with no loss of pay.
According to the ACTU, Australian workers perform an extra 4.5 weeks’ work annually on average through unpaid overtime. That figure climbs to 6.4 weeks on average for younger workers aged 18-24, according to the Centre for Future Work.
The ACTU argues that increasing annual leave by one week would add around two per cent to employment costs, but says this would likely be offset by lower staff turnover and less time lost to injury and stress.
The peak union body is also pushing for ten days of paid reproductive leave, a standard currently legislated only in Queensland. In all other states and territories, Australians must use sick leave or take unpaid time off to manage reproductive health matters such as prostate cancer screening, vasectomy recovery, fertility treatment, miscarriage, menstrual pain, menopause and endometriosis.
Also included in the ASU’s proposal are demands for six months’ paid notice for workers who lose jobs to AI, the scrapping of medical certificates for single-day staff absences and new roster rules, providing shift workers with predictable patterns and at least two weeks’ notice for shift changes made by their employer.
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