A Rural Council Bets on 52 Long Weekends a Year

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Murrumbidgee Council in south-west New South Wales has voted to trial a four-day working week for most of its staff from January, becoming the first Australian local council to do so. Employees will enjoy 52 long weekends next year, which is the kind of benefit that tends to make recruitment ads write themselves.

Same hours, fewer days

This is a compressed week rather than a shorter one. Staff at the depot, office, library and work crews in Darlington Point, Coleambally and Jerilderie will keep their 38-hour week, squeezed into four days. Most services will close on Fridays, while the childcare centre and caravan park stay open and on-call essential workers remain rostered. The agreement runs for 15 months. “The agreement will be for 15 months so that we can have a review in 12 months,” said general manager John Scarce.

Scarce said attracting staff to rural areas is hard and the council needs a competitive edge, but the model is also meant to lift productivity. He pointed to road work as an early sign: crews can currently grade about 6 kilometres of road a week, and he expects the same 6 kilometres in four days plus roughly an extra half kilometre, because less travel time means more working time. About 75% of staff preferred the compressed week, while just under 40% of community submissions opposed it.

Not everyone is sold

Some locals are sceptical. Darlington Point resident Michael Painting said: “I can’t see how they can increase the productivity when there’s going to be less daylight hours,” particularly outside daylight saving. A former council employee questioned the logistics and whether council assets would sit idle for longer. On the other side, local butcher Jody Heath, who cut his own shop from five and a half days to four about three years ago, said: “It really works having that one day off a week.”

The United Services Union, which represents NSW council workers, supports the move. Industrial officer Stuart Geddes said: “This is the first council nationally to trial shutting the whole council for the day.” Over the next six months Scarce will draft an agreement setting out what the week will look like and which performance indicators will judge the trial, so the half-kilometre promise will soon have a scoreboard.