New shift patterns could see staff at work four days followed by ten days working from home

WORKPLACES should operate new shift patterns that would see staff in work four days followed by 10 days working from home, a new report recommends.

The study by Imperial College London chemical biologist Professor Keith Willison for the Adam Smith Institute would split workforces into two groups that never overlap.

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The ‘cyclical’ proposal is designed to help the Government restart the economy in a Covid-friendly environment.

The traditional Saturday and Sunday weekend would no longer apply.

Instead workers’ two-day weekends would shift according to the pattern.

One group of the workforce would work for four consecutive days, followed by 10 days in lockdown.

In the second week the other half of the group are able to attend with ten days in lockdown after that.

The same could be applied to schools, with children’s days in the classroom coinciding with their parents’ days in the office in order to solve childcare issues.

The report by the Adam Smith Institute urges the Government to move away from a binary understanding of open and closed businesses to think about the varied ways organisation could reopen.

It argues that its proposal would allow the UK to meet three fundamental goals.

It would minimise the risk of a second peak, enable maximum possible return to business and educational normality while keeping individuals safe and would provide the public reassurance about safety concerns.

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