The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) proposed a shorter working week — including the possibility of a four-day model — to federal Labor’s Economic Reform Roundtable over August 19–21.
It stressed that pay and conditions — including penalty rates, overtime and minimum staffing levels — must be protected so that workers are not forced to sacrifice wages for shorter hours. It also suggested sector-specific options for reducing working hours, including more rostered days off, longer annual leave entitlements and redesigned rosters.
ACTU president Michele O’Neil said it wants “all Australians to benefit from higher productivity — not just those with money and power” and that productivity growth “does not automatically translate to higher living standards”.
“A fair go in the age of AI should be about lifting everyone’s living standards instead of just boosting corporate profits and executive bonuses.”
Peter Boyle, a member of the Socialist Alliance, told Green Left that the ACTU’s idea of a shorter working week is positive, because it poses the question of whether productivity gains should benefit all of society or just the capitalist class.
“If greater productivity is to really serve society, the benefits need to be shared with workers in the form of shorter hours with no loss of pay, alongside real wage rises.”
Dr Jim Stanford’s research for The Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work has highlighted the stark gap between productivity growth and wage growth. In Productivity in the Real World, Stanford calculated that if real wages had kept pace with productivity since 2000, the average worker would now be earning about 18% more — about $350 a week.
The struggle for shorter working hours in Australia goes back to 1855 when sections of the building trades in Naarm/Melbourne won the eight-hour work day at a time when 10- or 12-hour days were common.
The struggle for a shorter workweek continued throughout the 20th century. It shot to prominence during the campaign for a 35-hour week, with no loss in pay, in the Union Carbide strike and occupation at Altona, Victoria, in August 1979. To neutralise the company’s attempts to bring in scabs, workers occupied the plant for 51 days. The metalworkers and other unions continued the battle for years, holding mass meetings and strikes. Eventually, in December 1981, metalworkers voted — at the recommendation of the union leadership — to accept a 38-hour week, which soon became the standard across industries.
Since then, part-time, casual and insecure work have become widespread, reducing the average working week.
According to the International Labour Organisation, Australians now work an average of about 32 hours per week — slightly fewer than in Canada and New Zealand. However, this apparent reduction disguises the reality that while productivity has continued to rise, the share going to wages has fallen, with profits claiming the lion’s share.
“Since the 1970s, productivity increases have gone almost entirely into profits while real wages have stagnated,” Boyle said. “Many people are now working longer hours, and a record number are forced to juggle multiple jobs.”
This helps explain the strong public support for a shorter working week.
A Resolve Political Monitor poll, reported by the Sydney Morning Herald on August 20, found 66% of respondents favoured a four-day week on the same pay, while just 13% were opposed.
However, the question it asked was whether people would accept the same pay for fewer days if the same amount of work had to be done. This points to the danger of bosses using a shorter work week to squeeze more out of workers.
“The trade union movement should not be offering trade-offs in working conditions, or promising a higher intensity of work, in return for a shorter working week,” Boyle said.
Business claims about wanting higher productivity are disingenuous, Boyle said, because “the rate of productivity increases has slowed primarily because big business has invested less in new machinery and technology”.
“They can make more money, with the help of lucrative tax concessions, speculating in the housing and finance markets.”
“The bosses at this roundtable pretend they want greater productivity but they really want more public subsidies, tax concessions and weaker environmental and building standards — and Labor seems set on giving them what they want.”
History shows that shorter hours are never handed down by employers or governments. “Workers had to fight for the eight-hour day and 35-hour week. Unless the ACTU is prepared to organise such a struggle, it won’t be won,” Boyle concluded.