The world's largest-ever trial of a 'four-day week' in Iceland has been deemed an 'overwhelming success' as researchers call for it to be tested in the UK.
Workers were less stressed and had a better work-life balance, while bosses saw no significant drop-off in productivity or provision of services, analysts said
As a result of the experiment, which ran from 2015 to 2019, some 86 per cent of Icelandic workers have now negotiated contracts with permanently shortened hours.
Iceland's four-year experiment with a 'four-day working week' has been dubbed an 'overwhelming success' by researchers who want the model adopted elsewhere (file)
Will Stronge, director of research at British think tank Autonomy, said: 'This study shows that the world’s largest ever trial of a shorter working week in the public sector was by all measures an overwhelming success.
'It shows that the public sector is ripe for being a pioneer of shorter working weeks – and lessons can be learned for other governments.'
The Icelandic experiment involved two separate trials that initially included just a few dozen public sector workers who were members of unions.
But, as the trial progressed, it expanded to include 2,500 workers in both public and private sectors - or 1 per cent of the country's entire workforce.
Those taking part in the trials included police, healthcare workers, shop assistants, teachers and council workers, a report published by Autonomy and Iceland's Association for Sustainable Democracy said,
While the experiment has been dubbed a 'four-day week', in fact most workers did not take an entire day off work and instead aimed to reduce their hours from 40 per week to 35 or 36 - the equivalent of saving one full working day.
They largely did this by scrapping unnecessary
