The full working week should be cut to 21 hours

Generali

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Left-wing think tank.

Who's actually paying for such stupid research?

Usually a wealthy individual, trade union or family trust fund. Basically think tanks work on a similar basis to small hedge funds.

wymondham

I'm up for it, as long as I can be paid for 40.....

1984ReturnsForReal_2

Ummmmmmmmmm

It would end unemployment....

& extend poverty....

michaels

The old lump of labour fallacy - look at France's experiment with 35 hours - still with the reduced incomes there would be a big fall in house prices...

Spirit_2

As pointed out earlier in the thread, there are an increasing number of part-time workers in the UK. Reflecting not only choices about work life balance tbut also the growth of women in the workplace in general over the last 50 years and the increase in employment rights for women/part-time workers. This enables mitigation of inflationary pressures creating demand for two income households.

The impact on the supply of professional staff will require investment to boost students. For example increasing numbers of femail doctors, giving rise to an increasingly part-time medical workforce , leading for an increase in demand for numbers of medical staff and increase in medical students. Or as we deal with it currently because we plan badly and cannot grow Doctors quickly enough .... recruit from highly skilled migrants.

michaels

So all we need is more training and all those unemployed 18 year olds with no gcse's could be studying to become doctors? Help.

olly300

michaels wrote: »

So all we need is more training and all those unemployed 18 year olds with no gcse's could be studying to become doctors? Help.

Not what Spirit is saying.

There are more people who could get into medical school than places.

If the number of places where increased to match the predicted number of doctors who will work part-time then we would have enough doctors.

However there is also enough issue with doctors - there is not enough training places for those who are qualified. This means that some people who our taxes have paid for to qualify at degree level have emigrated............

peterg1965

Cloud cuckoo land stuff from the Loony left again!

PasturesNew

There's a thread on this elsewhere on the forums ... I remember posting on that one earlier.

I think it'd be better for everybody to work, but less hours.

As I see it, 21 hours would be "the norm" - a 3-day week. Then, if you NEEDED the extra money you could take on a different job. Some people wouldn't bother, some would. Some would do a job for the money and another job to move into another industry. Some could work AND study (if Unis structured their degrees into 3-day weeks). People could work and start their own business.

Snippa

I think it's a great idea. I'm pretty sure I only do about 3 days real "work" when stuck in an office anyway. By the time you factor in chatting, tea breaks, playing on the internet, smoke breaks and those afternoons you just don't do anything productive. The freed up time could be used for doing more useful things, like volunteering, helping out neighbours and generally relaxing, getting to know your neighbourhood etc. It's one of the saddest things about now: I didn't get to know any neighbours in my last place until I was off sick for a while. And didn't get to know my current ones until all the car tyres on the street were slashed, so none of us could drive off to work at 7-8am and had to stand around chatting while waiting for fleets of AA vans to turn up.