| Hi there, I'm Ailbhe Rea, a Bloomberg UK Associate Editor based in Westminster. Hope you enjoy today's Readout. In the near future, might you read this newsletter on Friday afternoons from the luxurious vantage point of a three-day weekend? That's the question you could well be asking today, with the papers full of suggestions that the government plan to introduce the right to ask for a four-day working week. The starting point is a story in The Telegraph, which confirmed that Labour's long-promised "default right to flexible working" — part of their sweeping "New Deal for Working People'"— will include the right to request to work one's contracted hours in four days rather than five. (In that sense, it's not quite the "four-day week" as typically understood, when someone works 80% of their previous hours.) Workers in the UK already have the right under current laws to request flexible working, like working from home, flexible start and finish times, or part-time work. What is different about this proposal is employers will be required to accommodate the request for a four-day week "as far as is reasonable," with a caveat for sectors where that isn't feasible. Which sectors are those? And how hard will it be for employers to decide that it is "reasonable" to refuse? Those are the questions that we still don't have answers to — and that, frankly, the government probably doesn't know itself at this point. That is the case with many of the measures included in the workers' rights package, which are still being worked out as Angela Rayner and her colleagues do the difficult work of turning campaign slogans — like banning "zero hours" contracts — into policy, while keeping trade unions and businesses onside. It hasn't always been an easy ride, and it's not finished yet, with a consultation due on the Employment Rights Bill before it becomes law.  Angela Rayner, deputy prime minister, arriving for the last cabinet meeting before the summer recess. Photographer: Chris J. Ratcliffe/Bloomberg But already it's looking like the final product could be less impactful than the bold promises made by Rayner when she unveiled the New Deal for Working People back in 2022. Take the example of her promised "right to switch off," which my colleague Irina Anghel and I revealed this week will be introduced as codes of practice, rather than legislation. They'll be based on Irish and Belgian models which have had a limited impact for workers in Ireland, as our reporting found. "Irish-style codes of practice" doesn't have quite the same ring to it as the tough "French-style laws" that the Tories warned us about. Keir Starmer still described it as "the biggest reform of workers' rights in a generation" in his speech in the Downing Street garden on Tuesday. But we could well find in a few months' time that the newfound right to ask for flexible working under Labour isn't quite so transformative after all — and you'll be reading this Friday newsletter from your office well into the future. Want this in your inbox each weekday? You can sign up here. | 
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