POLL OF THE DAY: Should civil servants be allowed a four-day working week?

They also argued it would save £21.4million a year through fewer sick days and staff resignations.

The findings come after a survey of 1,200 staff said a shorter work would reduce annual staff turnover by 57 per cent while cutting annual sick days by 65 per cent.

The PCS is expected to conduct further research into how a four-day week at Defra would work in practice.

Fran Heathcote, the general secretary of the PCS, said: “We’ve long argued the social, practical and professional benefits of a four-day week.

“Now this research shows the financial benefits, too.

“It also suggests that any opposition to employees working a four-day week is purely ideological.

“Why else would an employer stand in the way of progress?

“Our members are resolute in their belief that a four-day week is critical to attaining a good quality of life, improving their health and wellbeing and helping them to meet caring responsibilities, while all the time increasing their productivity.”

However, Pensions Minister Emma Reynolds rejected the idea it would lead to mass savings and flatly denied any move towards a four-day week.

She told Times Radio: “Well they won’t get one.”

Asked why not, Reynolds said: “Because we’re not living in the 1970s.”

Asked specifically about the £21.4 million saving claim, she added: “I don’t believe them.”

A Defra spokesman also said: “There are no plans for a four-day working week.”

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