Compressing a full-time work week into four days was a no-brainer for retail worker Ruth Tan.
The Perth mother-of-three is no stranger to early starts, so starting work at 5am to check Ikea warehouse stock didn’t trouble her.
She said spending more days at home was a game-changer.
“It’s great — it allows me to plan my ‘me time’ and lots of activities outside of work,”
she said.
The 47-year-old works a 10-hour day, including breaks, four days a week, and gets extra overtime loading for the longer hours on those days.
Ikea is one of a handful of major retailers that are already offering four-day work week options to staff.
Now the Australian Retailers’ Association (ARA) has requested the Fair Work Commission include the option of a four-day work week for all retail workers.
But their proposal isn’t as favourable to employees as Ikea’s, as it wouldn’t pay overtime for the longer shifts.
ARA’s industry affairs officer, Fleur Brown, said its proposal would allow a more flexible approach to working 38 hours a week.
“We would like to see the retail award allow for that flexible way of working that is very much part of the future,” she said.
Some workplace experts warn the proposal is a misrepresentation of what is commonly known as “four-day work weeks”, which involve fewer hours each week, and could erode worker conditions like overtime loadings.
Big retailers moving first
Woolworths and Big W have recently signed enterprise agreements that include the four-day week option for full-time employees.
Ikea formalised its four-day work week option last year in its enterprise agreement with workers.
Now 30 per cent of Ikea staff have taken it on.
Ikea Perth’s people and culture manger, Laila Colaco said it is a real point of difference.
Ikea Perth’s people and culture manger, Laila Colaco, says a compressed work week offers employers a competitive advantage. (ABC News)
“It is a competitive advantage that we are able to offer co-workers the opportunity to really choose the hours and the days that work for them,” she said.
Hardware giant Bunnings road-tested a compressed four-day work week, before making it a fixture in 2024. Its agreement maintains all existing overtime allowances.
Fiona Coleman, who works in the Stafford store in Brisbane’s northern suburbs, said it had been a win for her.
“The four-day work week works better for me because I feel I can achieve a lot more in a slightly longer day compared to what I would normally get done in a shorter day,”
she said.
“There’s more job satisfaction in it.”
An earlier start and late finish, also meant she was avoiding the peak-hour commute.
Lauren Beaton, Bunnings’ Stafford store manager, said employees of varying ages had taken up the option, but it hadn’t worked for everyone.
Bunning’s manager Lauren Beaton said a condensed work week has added flexibility to the team. (ABC News: Mark Leonardi)
She said one worker tried the shorter week, but opted out because she thought the days were just a bit too long.
A Bunnings spokesperson said the number of team members on these flexible work arrangements fluctuated, with approximately 14 per cent of full-time team members currently taking up the option.
This equates to around 1,650 staff working shorter weeks.
For those working a compressed work week, 55 per cent were female, 40 per cent were above the age of 50 and 30 per cent were below the age of 30.
Fiona Coleman said starting early and finishing late meant she beat the traffic
(ABC News: Mark Leonardi)
What is a condensed work week?
Workplace experts are at pains to point out that the retail version of the four-day week is substantially different to what is offered in white-collar office jobs.
A condensed work week, which is what is offered in retail, is essentially a standard 38-hour week compressed into at least four nine-hour days.
Whereas in the services sector, most businesses use what’s called the “100:80:100” model.
This model tries to make workers work more efficiently in fewer hours, by getting employees and bosses to agree to 100 per cent of their previous pay, for 80 per cent of the work time, with a commitment to 100 per cent productivity.
Chris Wright from Sydney University’s business school said the retail sector was an industry characterised by relatively low pay and insecure work. (ABC News: Chris Taylor)
A major benefit for employers under the ARA proposal is that they do not have to pay overtime to those working longer days.
The question for employees is whether the extra day off, is enough to compensate for that.
Chris Wright, from Sydney University’s business school, said the retail sector was an industry characterised by relatively low pay and insecure work, and a mostly female workforce.
He said the condensed work week without paying penalties — as proposed by the retail lobby group — was an erosion of employees’ conditions.
The Fair Work Commission has been asked to consider giving all retail workers the option of working a condensed week.
“This is a misrepresentation of the four-day work week,” he said.
“If workers are having to work nine or 10 hours a day under the change, employers wouldn’t have to pay them overtime, then that’s a potentially significant change for those employees.”
While the ARA proposal before Fair Work does not include overtime penalties for longer shifts when employees opt for a four-day week, the Enterprise Agreements already used by Ikea and Bunnings allow for extra pay for early starts and late finishes.
Carol Kulik from the Centre for Workplace Excellence at the University of South Australia, said the compressed work week was “absolutely” not for all.
“Not everyone is going to thrive in this kind of environment where you have to work longer hours in order to get the benefit of that rostered day off,” she said.
Professor Carol Kulik would like to see workers given the choice to work a compressed week if it suits them. (ABC News: Stephen Opie )
“But I think what is really important is that in any of these kind of work models, if we can give employees the choice, the employees who take it up are going to be the ones for whom it works.”
Professor Kulik said historically, compressed work weeks have been for an employers’ benefit and not seen as a ‘flexible’ work option.
“In manufacturing, for example, it was much more efficient for employers to run machines longer and then shut everything down to do the maintenance,” she said.
Professor Kulik said recent research carried out at a business that enforced condensed work weeks, showed women disliked it more than men.
“In general, women find it more challenging to manage a compressed work week alongside the other responsibilities that they have at home.
“Compressed work weeks are not very flexible, so if you have a sick child, or if you need to manage aging parents, you’re not going to be able to juggle those responsibilities alongside the long hours that you’re putting in four days out of the work week.”
Gerard Dwyer, National Secretary the SDA the union representing retail and warehouse workers said the ARA proposal was about bosses wanting their workforce to work longer and get paid less.
”This is not a genuine offer for a 38-hour four-day week — that can be done now under the retail award — rather this is a bid to enable an employer to dictate more long days without overtime,” he said.
