Ray O'Rourke: 'We need 35-hour weeks'

Ray O’Rourke, chair and chief executive of contractor Laing O’Rourke, has called for firms to move towards 35-hour working weeks to attract more young people into the industry.

Speaking at the Government Construction Summit O’Rourke said: “The industry is not a very attractive place to be. It’s not sustainable to work with the current methods of delivery.”

He argued that a move to greater use of off site construction would make it “inevitable” that working weeks would be shortened.

He said: “You would have less demand for hours of work and you would be able to have young people interested in a career.”

Laing O’Rourke has invested millions in a massive off site construction plant in Derbyshire. “The approach that we are bringing forward is key to enabling a 35-hour working week,” he said.

O’Rourke also argued that the industry needed  a more collaborative approach to procurement which incentivised all parties to be deliver successful projects ditching the current adversarial atmosphere.