A SECOND major supermarket has introduced a four-day work week.
Thousands of staff at Morrisons are being allowed to move onto a new work schedule – following in the footsteps of Asda who moved to a similar work week, earlier in January.
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Staff at the supermarket‘s Bradford HQ is allowing their workers to move to a four-and-a-half-day week.
Those affected include Morrisons commercial and marketing teams as around 2,000 staff in total are set to take on the changes.
The supermarket first introduced a four-day week, four-years-ago, but it led to the head office staff being made to work 13 Saturdays a year as part of their updated contracts.
However, under the new proposals, which come in next month, workers aren’t needed on Saturday’s but they will still have to maintain 37.5 hours-a-week.
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Morrisons HQ saw staff members weekly working hours significantly dropping from 40 to 37.5 in 2021.
They were also working nine-hours-a-day before that was changed to eight hours over a four days stretch, plus a six-hour day one Saturday every month.
Reports at the time said that Saturday shifts weren’t popular with HQ staff and led to several complaints.
Asda also launched the initiative last week among its store managers as it pursues a “case for change”.
An Asda spokesman told The Sun Online: “Since September 2023, we have been trialling a variety of flexible working patterns for managers in 20 stores, including a 4-day working week for the same pay and benefits.
“More flexible working patterns have become commonplace in retail leadership in recent years, and we are keen to test and learn different ways of working that benefit our colleagues and business.
“While we are still evaluating the results of this trial, the feedback from participating colleagues has been very positive.
“Asda has also invested a total of £325m in increasing pay for both store-based and logistics colleagues since 2022.”
The move comes after Sainsbury’s shook up its working practices last year and introduced flexible working, including a four-day working week.
The supermarket giant said it has been looking at ways to make its work schedules more flexible and better for employees.
It said that while it not trialling a formal four-day week, some staff may end up working a shorter week as a result.
The world’s biggest trial of a four-day working week was hailed a “major breakthrough” last year.
The trial saw 61 companies across a variety of sectors in the UK commit to reducing their working hours for all staff by 20 per cent, for six months from June 2022.
The results revealed a significant drop in the rates of stress and illness among the approximately 2,900 staff trying a shorter working week.
