Four-day week ‘may work well’ for some businesses, government admits as pilot starts

Officials are keeping a close eye on a pilot project being run by UK businesses

Thousands of workers are trialling a four-day week with no loss of pay (EPA)

Government officials have accepted that a four-day week “may work” for some businesses, as the world’s largest trial of shorter working hours kicks off in the UK.

The Independent understands that officials from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) are keeping a close eye on the pilot programme and have already met the study’s organisers to find out more.

A group of civil servants from BEIS discussed the design of the project and how the policy of cutting working hours with no loss of pay would work in practice.