Read to the end for the country making serious moves to a four-day week, key dates on the government's anti-strikes bill, and a stitched-up four-legged transport inspector. 

Morning team, 

Well, it’s been an awful week for workplace culture. We like to expect the workplace to be a place of safety, but this week’s news shows that even the most prestigious workplaces aren’t immune to bullying and sexual harassment. 

Dominic Raab has stepped down from his position as deputy pm and as justice secretary after an investigation found he bullied staff members while working as a cabinet minister. 

The former deputy pm defended his behaviour by pointing out that the report found he had “not once, in four and a half years, sworn or shouted at anyone, let alone thrown anything or otherwise physically intimidated anyone, nor intentionally sought to belittle anyone”.

After all, it doesn’t count as bullying if no tomatoes were hurled across the room in a fit of rage, right? I asked the experts how all of us can identify bullying at work, and how to hold the perpetrators to account – no matter their status or seniority. 

A second woman has come forward to say she was raped while working at the Confederation of British Industry, after The Guardian revealed multiple allegations of sexual harassment. Another woman was stalked by a male colleague, but was actively discouraged from reporting the stalking to the police.

CBI president Brian McBride said it failed to ‘filter out culturally toxic people’. The future of the business group is hanging in the balance with more than 50 notable members – including John Lewis and NatWest – having publicly quit or suspended their links to the organisation. 

And employers continue to seem perplexed by the reluctance of employees to return to offices after the home working boom. Baffling.

Got a work-related story I should know about? Drop me an email at evie.breese@bigissue.com or tweet at @Evie_Breese

What you need to know about work this week:

Baby or bust. One in four women undergoing fertility treatment such as IVF has experienced discrimination at work, new figures from Pregnant Then Screwed have revealed. Aasma Day lays bare the experiences of women who decided to be open about the gruelling experience, only to be treated appallingly, for The i. (£)

End of an era. More bad news for journalists as BuzzFeed announces it will be shutting down its newsroom with substantial layoffs. News company Insider has also announced plans to reduce its workforce by 10 per cent with about 95 jobs to be lost. 

The prezzo to pay. Italian restaurant chain Prezzo is set to close 46 loss-making restaurants putting around 800 jobs at risk. The company said the rising ‘price’ (or ‘prezzo’, in Italian) of ingredients (pizza sauce is up 28 per cent) and of wages is to blame. 

Three-day weekends forever. Civil servants are demanding a four-day working week without any cut to pay. Members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union will vote on the motion at its annual conference in May. This is a great deep-dive from US-based writer Simone Stolzoff on what the four-day week debate misses. 

A neat business idea. A new project in Conwy, North Wales, hopes to support people not currently in work or education, who have an idea, a skill or a hobby, to start their own business. “We want to open the concept of self-employment up to everyone” said project manager Elwyn Edwards. Hear hear!

Strike watch

Legal attack. The government is launching legal action to prevent the next scheduled nurses strike after RCN members voted to reject a recent pay offer. Government ministers and the NHS Employers organisation say the strike, set for April 30, is unlawful because the union’s six-month mandate for industrial action expires during the strike period. 

Right to strike. Over one hundred politicians from around the world have condemned the government’s anti-strike bill, which seeks to force unions to run minimum service levels during strike action. The bill is to be debated in the House of Lords today. 

Delivered. Royal Mail has agreed a deal with striking posties, offering a 10 per cent pay rise over three years. In return, the CWU has accepted changes to delivery start times and Sunday working. The union has also claimed that the deal means that the “uberisation” of Royal Mail is set to be abandoned.

Ungraded. Lecturers and staff at 145 UK education institutions have been involved in a marking boycott since April 20, in a dispute over pay and conditions. Union members will continue the boycott until employers make an improved pay offer, the University and College Union says, and it could affect graduations.

Take a look at our comprehensive list of upcoming strike dates.

A global solution 🇪🇸

From May 1 Brits are being treated to two four-day weeks in a row, but what if it was like this all the time?

The Spanish city of Valencia has introduced four public holidays on four consecutive Mondays in a conscious decision by the council to create a month-long trial of the four-day working week. The council hopes to then study the effects it has on the city and its locals.

And if that wasn't enough to convince you relocate to Spain immediately, the government has also launched a pilot scheme to offer small businesses grants to shift to a four-day week with no loss to pay. Employers can apply for up to €200,000 per company, alongside the consultancy costs of designing new work schemes.

Working culture

In new BBC comedy drama Rain Dogs, Costello Jones (Daisy May Cooper) is trying to look after her daughter while facing bailiffs, an abusive relationship and scraping enough money together to do the school run. Aside from being brilliantly funny, Rain Dogs demonstrates how a middle-class gaze shapes common views of people in poverty, and continues to create categories of the deserving and undeserving poor. While staying in a refuge, Costello is told she simply doesn’t act like a “battered woman”.

With Costello cobbling together the time to write her book, even contending with a smashed up laptop, viewers are forced to consider who gets to write, and the stories we miss out on because a passionate writer couldn’t wait around for the payout to finally come, or has a personality deemed distasteful to publishers. More on this topic here.

Our own Adrian Lobb sat down with Rain Dogs writer Cash Carraway to hear how this brilliant show (I binged it in two sittings) came into being.  

Know someone who will love this newsletter? Share our sign-up article with your social networks. And why not check out Survival Guide, our newsletter on the cost of living crisis from my colleague Isabella McRae.

In the diary

Wednesday 26 April. Teachers in five education unions across Northern Ireland go on strike.

The strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill will be debated in the House of Lords, just hours after trade union leaders including Mick Lynch are to be questioned by the Transport Committee on the practicalities of setting minimum service levels for the rail sector during strikes.

Thursday April 27. Teachers strike with the National Education Union.

Event: The Institute for Employment Studies (IES) Annual Conference: Shaping a fairer world of work.

Friday April 28. All out strike from over 130,000 civil servants and public servants with the PCS Union. 

It’s also International Workers Memorial Day (IWMD) to commemorate the people who have died while working, with a one minute silence held at 12.00. The TUC uses this day to draw attention to the need for proper health and safety at work. 

Event: Fairwork UK Ratings 2023 – Unpaid Labour in the Platform Economy.

Sunday April 30. Nurses with the RCN have announced a 48-hour round-the-clock walkout, starting at 8pm, however the government has launched a legal challenge to the strike. 

Tuesday May 2. Teachers strike with the National Education Union.

Friday May 5. Journalists at the BBC’s local networks will strike with the National Union of Journalists over job cuts.

Saturday July 29. Event: Troublemakers at Work: Grassroots Trade Unionists conference 2023.

Animals with jobs 

Street dog Boji was doing a great job of keeping an eye on Istanbul’s public transport system until he was scandalously framed! This is an absolutely wild ride! We’re sending full solidarity to Boji and hoping he’s happy in his retirement. 

Does your cat / dog/ garden fox/ animal you saw on holiday participate in the daily grind? Nominate them today by sending me a photo to: evie.breese@bigissue.com

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