Australian Council of Trade Unions Proposes 4-Day Work Week

The call comes as stakeholders gear up for the Economic Reform Roundtable next week to improve Australia’s lagging productivity.

Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) President Michele O'Neil and workers from various sectors at a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia on July 30, 2025. AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

A major union is proposing a radical overhaul of the Australian working lifestyle, calling for a four-day work week without cuts to pay.

The call comes as stakeholders gear up for the Economic Reform Roundtable next week to improve Australia’s lagging productivity.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), made up of 38 unions representing 2 million workers, says productivity and technological advances should be the catalyst for cutting back on work hours.

“Unions will propose that Australia move towards a four-day work week where appropriate, and use sector-specific alternatives where it is not,” the ACTU argued.

“Pay and conditions, including penalty rates, overtime and minimum staffing levels, would be protected to ensure a reduced work week doesn’t result in a loss of pay,” the group added.

ACTU President Michele O'Neil said shorter working hours were good for both workers and employers.

“They deliver improved productivity and allow working people to live happier, healthier and more balanced lives,” she said.

“Productivity growth does not automatically translate to higher living standards. If that were the case over the past 25 years, the average worker today would be around $350 a week better off,” she said.

“For workers in some sectors, shorter working hours can be delivered through moving to a four-day work week. For other people, this could be achieved through other ways, such as more time off or fairer rosters.”

The ACTU’s recommendation follows a Nature study in July that found four-day work weeks led to employees feeling “happier, healthier, and high performing.”

The study involved six countries over a six month trial.

On Aug. 13, Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the government had no plans for such an initiative.

“These ideas will come up, I’m not going to give a running commentary on all of them, but certainly the government has no plans,” he told reporters.

“The ACTU, of course, is entitled to put forward whatever ideas it would like, but that doesn’t mean, as I said, that it’s government policy because somebody put forward an idea.”

Major Business Group Says 4-Day Work Trials Not Positive

The Australian Industry Group’s CEO Innes Willox was highly critical of the idea calling it a “anti-productivity thought bubble.”

“This comes at a time when the Reserve Bank of Australia yesterday told us we face declining living standards because of falling productivity,” Willox said.

“As we prepare for an economic roundtable next week to lift productivity when attendees have been explicitly told that discussion on workplace relations is off the table, this is the only thing unions can offer—measures that will turn back time, cut productivity, make Australia less attractive to much needed investment and lead to fewer jobs.”

“With this idea, based off a loaded academic survey of a trial including 10 companies that provided at best mixed results, along with Victoria wanting to legislate two days working from home for every worker, it seems the union movement and parts of Australian government don’t want Australians to work at all,” he said.

He suggested businesses that had experimented with a four day work week had ditched the idea because of “reduced output and a drop in organisational capacity.”

The Australian Greens have long expressed support for cutting back working hours with workplace relations representative, Senator Barbara Pocock, saying, “Australia has made big gains in flexible working hours, working from home, and disconnecting from our jobs after hours. The obvious next step is a four-day working week.”