The initiative is a push to combat the growing pressure for some workers to be contactable and productive at all hours, making homes “24/7 offices”.
The model mimics ones already in place in other European countries and could even result in staff being in line for thousands of pounds of compensation under Labour’s new plans.
The government has dubbed the plan as the ‘right to switch off’ and wouldn’t be rules dictated to employers. Instead, it would propose agreements to be made between employers and employees.
What is the ‘right to switch off’?
The ‘right to switch off’ was first put forward as part of Labour’s New Deal for Working People, a package of measures that aims to improve workers’ rights and boost economic growth.
In the part’s election manifesto, it was described as encouraging employers and employees to have “constructive conversations and work together on bespoke workplace policies or contractual terms that benefit both parties”.
In some versions of the plan, workers could be able to take their employers to a tribunal if agreed conditions are not met, such as consistently contacting employees out of hours.
If frequently broken, this could even result in large compensation payouts.
A spokesperson for the government said that details on the ‘right to switch off’ policies were still being finalised.
“It has to be something that businesses and their workforce agree among themselves rather than a diktat,” they said while speaking to Sky News. “We’re conscious of the disproportionate impacts of these sort of policies on smaller businesses, that will factor into how we draft it.”
What other countries already have something similar?
The UK wouldn’t be the first nation to put something like this into action.
Indeed, Ireland introduced a Code of Practice, developed in consultation with trade unions in 2021. It requires employers to engage with staff on a ‘right to disconnect’ company policy, defining specific circumstances when people can be contacted outside of normal working hours.
Much like the proposal for the UK, the code is not legally binding but can be used in evidence against employers in tribunals or similar.
Belgium, on the other hand, has right to disconnect policies backed by legislation, applying to companies with more than 20 employees.
Although such policies have become more popular since the pandemic, France and Spain have had similar rules in place for years, with France embedding the legal right to avoid emails outside of working hours in 2017.
