Workers would have authorized proper to request four-day week beneath the Green Party

Workers would have the right to request a four-day week under the Green Party.

In its manifesto launch on Wednesday, the Greens will vow to work toward making a shorter working week a legal right. This would be phased in across different industries to ensure the needs of both employees and employers are met.

The party will also pledge to increase the minimum wage to £15 an hour for all ages and limit bosses to earning a maximum of ten times the amount of their lowest paid employees in both the private and public sector. A CEO currently earns 109 times the average UK full-time worker, according to FTSE 100 figures for this year.

The top bosses of Britain’s biggest firms earned more money in the first three days of this year than the typical worker will all year, research by the High Pay Centre has found. Chief executives’ take-home earnings, including pensions, average at £3.81million per year – or £1,170 per hour, the think tank said.

The Green Party also wants to repeal current anti-union legislation with a positive Charter of Workers’ Rights, ensuring unions have the right to strike. It is also pledging equal employment rights for all workers from their first day of employment, including those working in the ‘gig economy’, which relies heavily on temporary and part-time positions, and those on zero-hours contracts. Gig employers who repeatedly break employment, data protection or tax law will be denied licences to operate under the party.

Green co-leader Carla Denyer said: “Across the UK, there are 4.2 million children growing up in poverty, 70% of whom have a parent in paid work. We want these children to grow up and thrive and their parents to be fairly rewarded. Our Making Work Fair proposals do just that.”