Ireland's first four-day week trial has been branded a 'resounding success'.
12 small to medium-sized businesses which took part in the pilot say they want to continue with the reduced working week.
It was co-ordinated as part of a global trial, co-led by Four-Day Week Ireland, the Fórsa trade union and UCD.
The trial found employers were pleased with productivity levels, while workers benefited from increased sleep and better life satisfaction and there was a drop in stress and burnout.
Dr Orla Kelly, Assistant Professor in Social Policy at UCD, says while all workers benefited, there were bigger gains for female employees;
"We saw the gains universally but the magnitude of gains in terms of sleep time were larger for women and in the global trials we saw that the satisfaction with life, how much time you had to spend caring for others, caring for yourself was larger for women."
