Four sure?

BRITAIN: As the recession continues, more and more companies are placing workers on four-day weeks. A trend that began in factories is now spreading to London’s financial district.

KPMG is the first major accountancy firm to offer its 11,000 employees a voluntary four-day work week, as well as sabbaticals of up to three months. “There was a worry that it would be a four-day week, with a five-day workload, but that seems not to be the case,” a KPMG employee told The Times. “There is such a full-time culture that actually a lot of people are looking forward to it. I’m more than willing to accept a pay cut for more free time.”

"I'm willing to accept a pay cut for more free time," says an employee in London's financial district.

The KPMG model is intended as an alternative to making workers redundant. The four-day working week brings pay cuts of up to 20 per cent, while sabbaticals and extended leave are offered with 30 per cent pay. The plan is open to partners as well as employees.

Other companies are looking at different ways of saving money and reducing job loss. The BBC , for example, is implementing a 12 per cent pay cut for senior managers and ending the current bonus system. At the Financial Times , staff are being asked to volunteer for three- or four-day weeks.

Whether this will be enough to prevent job losses is uncertain, however. “In more prosperous times, employees would be very reluctant to take a pay cut to safeguard a colleague’s job,” says Richard Nicolle of the London law firm Denton Wilde Sapte . “Employees are now very willing to consider anything that ultimately might save their own job, at a time when other jobs are very difficult to find. So the whole negotiating position has changed.”