Fórsa trade union will host a public meeting about the campaign for a four day working week at the union’s Galway office at Sean Mulvoy Business Park next week on Thursday, November 28 from 7.30pm.
The meeting is one of a series of regional meetings taking place following the launch of 4DWI (Four Day Week Ireland ) in September.
4DWI is a new coalition of businesses, unions, environmentalists, academics and NGOs established to campaign for shorter working time in all sectors of the economy. The initiative is the Irish leg of an international campaign to establish a four-day week without reductions in pay or productivity.
The new coalition says reduced working time is better for business, better for workers, better for women, and better for the environment.
The campaign aims to achieve “a gradual, steady, managed transition to a shorter working week for all workers in the private and public sectors.”
The campaign pledges to promote the concept of a four-day week with Irish businesses and offer support to those who trial the approach by drawing on the experience of companies like Galway-based recruitment firm ICE and New Zealand’s Perpetual Guardian, which are already reaping the benefits of introducing a four-day week for their staff.
Speakers at the meeting include Orla O’Connor of the National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI ); Oisín Coghlan of Friends of the Earth; Margaret Cox, chief executive of ICE, and Fórsa campaigns director Joe O’Connor.
