Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard has called for a reduction in the working week. Speaking on Sunday, he said a reduction in hours would be a logical response to the increasingly automated economy.

Mr Leonard said it was “absolutely right” to explore a “managed reduction in working time” for workers across Scotland.

He told a conference in Glasgow: “The trade unions were not simply established to fight for a rise in the weekly wage – they were often established to fight for the eight hour day.

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“So working time is a hugely important thing to working people. If you go down to the BAE Systems yard on the Clyde here, it’s interesting that one of the incentives in the yard to meet their productivity targets… is not to get a bonus in their pay packet. The incentive is to get a Friday off, instead of working a half-day on Friday.

“So the unit of currency to incentivise working people in this city on the Clyde is working time.”

An EU directive sets the limit of a 48-hour week – but workers can opt out.

Mr Leonard told the conference, which was organised by the Morning Star newspaper to discuss industrial strategy, the idea was “part of our roots” and should be a priority for Labour.

“I think this is an idea, comrades, which is popular,” he added.

Wealth creators

The Scottish Labour leader also reiterated his call for an expansion of employee ownership. “Why don’t the people who create the wealth own the wealth they create?” he asked.

“It’s an old socialist idea, but it’s an idea that resonates with working people, because it’s a good example of where we could see a redistribution of power in the economy.”

‘Democratic and diverse’

And he said the SNP’s “defensive rescues” of failed industries in Scotland “do not constitute an industrial strategy”, calling instead for “forward planning of the economy”.

He warned: “What we do cannot simply be predicated on a Keynesian-style reflation of the old economy. We need to look at how we can build a new economy, a more democratic and diverse economy.”