Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister of Scotland, has included a £10 million pledge to fund trials for Scottish companies for four-day work weeks in the SNP manifesto.

“Covid-19 changed the way we work almost overnight. As we recover from the pandemic, we want to do more to support people achieve a healthy work-life balance,” the manifesto reads.

“We also want to keep the total number of people in employment high. As part of this, we will establish a £10 million fund to allow companies to pilot and explore the benefits of a four day working week. We will use the learning from this to consider a more general shift to a four day working week as and when Scotland gains full control of employment rights. We will also identify additional employment opportunities and assess the economic impact of moving to a four day week,” it continued.

The First Minister also said that if the SNP wins a majority at the Holyrood elections in May, citizens of Scotland will have free dental care and billions would be invested into the NHS and infrastructure in the nation.

In a virtual address this morning, Sturgeon said, “I look around Europe and I see independent countries, of similar size to us, that are among the wealthiest, fairest and happiest in the world.

“If Denmark and Norway and Ireland can do it, then with all our resources and talent, why not Scotland?”

“After this election, if there is a simple, democratic majority in the Scottish Parliament for an independence referendum, there will be no democratic, electoral or moral justification whatsoever for Boris Johnson or anyone else to block the right of people in Scotland to decide their own future,” she added.

“I believe passionately that with the powers of independence we can do so much more for Scotland. Whether or not Scotland becomes independent won’t be decided by me or by the SNP or even by the Scottish Parliament.”

A spokesperson for Boris Johnson said the Government has “no plans” to bring in a four-day work week for Britian.

But some private companies are considering it anyway. In fact, almost a fifth of companies in the UK are considering bringing in a four-day work week after the pandemic.

The hope is that it would boost productivity.  Five percent of small and medium-sized businesses – 300,000 in total – are ahead of the game and already have a four-day week.