U.K. Labour Pledges Cut to Working Week as Brexit Splits Deepen
U.K. Labour Pledges Cut to Working Week as Brexit Splits Deepen
(Bloomberg) -- John McDonnell said a future Labour government would cut U.K. working hours, as he sought to heal rifts in the main opposition party over Brexit with a speech promising a transformation of the British economy.
Labour’s Treasury spokesman told the party’s annual conference in Brighton, southeast England, that if the party won a general election it would cut the average working week to 32 hours -- with no loss of pay.
“Transforming lives means -- before everything else -- having enough to get by. Not just to scrape by, but to live a rich and fulfilling life,” McDonnell said. “Work isn’t just about wages. It’s about freedom from drudgery; having dignity, respect and a voice in the workplace.”
McDonnell’s speech, which drew several standing ovations from delegates, came after two days of bitter infighting over Brexit and before a series of votes on the issue that are set to entrench the division later on Monday.
McDonnell, a close ally of leader Jeremy Corbyn, called for the party to pull together just hours after Unison and Unite, its biggest trade union backers, took different sides in the party’s civil war over leaving the European Union. Unison wants the party to campaign to remain in the bloc, while Unite wants it to continue to straddle the Brexit divide.
“I want us to demonstrate in the respect we show each other and how we bring our party together, just how we can also bring the country together again,” McDonnell said.
McDonnell’s speech included pledges on free adult social care, investment in green technology and unspecified legislation to deter investment in carbon intensive industries, as he sought to rally the party behind a socialist vision for the future. With an election expected in the fall, activists need to unite to win, he said.
Labour would set up a Working Time Commission to make recommendations on increasing statutory leave requirements, and opt out of the European Time Directive, McDonnell said. Labour would also increase the power of trade unions to negotiate legally binding sectoral agreements, he told delegates.
“As society got richer, we could spend fewer hours at work. But in recent decades progress has stalled,” he said. “People in our country today work the longest average full-time hours in Europe, apart from Greece and Austria.”
A Labour-commissioned study published earlier this month rejected the idea of a French-style cap on work time. Instead, economist Robert Skidelsky said the aim should be to reduce working time for public-sector employees to 35 hours per week in a decade, through investment in automation and efficiency.
“Everyone has a right to a good life,” McDonnell said. “The state has responsibility to make good on that right.”
Business leaders question the wisdom of McDonnell’s central policy announcement, saying it would be hard for companies to remain profitable.
“Business shares the shadow chancellor’s aim of a fairer economy, but too many of Labour’s policies would make this harder to achieve, harming the very people they are trying to help,” Carolyn Fairbairn, director general of the Confederation of British Industry, said in a statement. “Who would turn down a four day week on the same pay? But without productivity gains it would push many businesses into loss.”
--With assistance from Alex Morales.
To contact the reporters on this story: Jessica Shankleman in London at jshankleman@bloomberg.net;Kitty Donaldson in Brighton at kdonaldson1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Thomas Penny, Stuart Biggs
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