Reading the article this is much less significant than the headline implies.
First of all it’s not a reduction in hours, just working the same hours over 4 days instead of 5: “…employees would be able to condense the current five-day week into four days. In practice this means maintaining a 38-hour working week…”
I’m sure this will benefit some people but when I say 4-day week I mean a reduction in working hours, not shuffling them around the week. Calling this a 4-day week instead of flexible-working is not helpful imo.Secondly this isn’t even giving employees a right to that, just a right to ask for it:
“The draft reform package… will grant employees the ability to request a four-day week. ‘This has to be done at the request of the employee, with the employer giving solid reasons for any refusal’”