With remote working arrangements on the rise, there is increasing amount of attention being given to employee legal rights to disconnect from the workplace to support work-life balance.

What is the right to disconnect?

Disconnecting from work (particularly for home-workers) means being able to mentally move away from thinking about working to allow oneself to truly 'switch off'. Remote workers often complain that there is a blurred line between work and home and opportunities to 'switch off' are a few which has huge implications to mental health as well as wellbeing. 

With technology advancing at a rapid rate, employers have multiple methods of communication with employees who are working off-site. The benefits of this is that it creates rapport and encourages collaboration. This will also mean that employers may supply devices to aid this contact, such as laptops, phones and software programmes making this communication even easier to achieve. The implication of this is that this means employees are accessible after working hours and oftentimes find it difficult to switch off with work resources being too close to their fingertips. The right to disconnect allows an employee to enjoy their free time away from work duties without being disturbed by their employer. 

Ireland's Workplace Relations Commission have devised a Code of Practice on employee rights to disconnect. This includes: 

1. The right for an employee not to routinely perform work duties outside of working hours
2. The right not to be penalised for refusing to respond to work matters outside of working times
3. The employers duty to respect the employees right to disconnect (for example, refraining from sending emails outside of working hours regardless of if the employee responds)

So, what is the Labour Party proposing and how does this affect employers?

There have been seismic changes to the way we work which can be attributed to the pandemic (social distancing measures resulted in the rise of remote working), technology advances (use of Microsoft Teams and Zoom for meetings) and the rise of gig-economy which means less directly employed staff and a rise in autonomy and worker authority to decided on working arrangements for themselves. 

Should the Labour Party win the next general election, it is likely the UK will adopt its guidance outlined in the Labour Green paper- A New Deal for Working People which promises "a new right to disconnect from work outside of working hours and not be contacted by their employer outside of working hours”.

It is likely that the right to switch off will be a statutory right, which means employers should revise their internal policies on the right to request flexible working - which as been amended in April 2024, just to throw another consideration into the equation! HR Habitat also anticipates that failure to provide this right to employees may be met by financial penalties. 

Alternatively, Labour may decide to advise employers on implementing a more 'soft approach' which may offer guidance on the dealing with out-of-hours matters. It is also likely to announce a 'qualifying criteria' for example, under the French model the government imposes obligations on employer to introduce a written policy on 'down time' in organisations of 50 employees or more, and a disconnect policy only becomes a legal requirement if unions are unable to reach agreement. 

We also anticipate that there will be some industries that will be exempt, for example health care workers in the medical field. We await to hear further. 

Why implement the 'right to switch off' in your organisation?

There are many benefits of implementing employee rights to switch off via policy. Since the pandemic, there has been real attention around worker wellbeing and with an immensely fluctuating labour market in the UK, employers are often fighting for talent. In order to win the war on talent, employers find themselves competing to offer the most attractive employment packages which can compromise of private medical cover, enhanced pension contributions and other perks such as monetary incentives (rewards, bonuses etc). Being seen to value employee rights to switch off portrays the employer to be 'an employer of choice' as employees value their personal time now more than ever. The legal right to switch off can improve work-life balance and keep employees happier and more dedicated to their roles. In addition, this will mean better staff retention rates as well as less disturbances which often happens as a result of leavers. Implementing the right to switch off could also allow the employer to remain attractive in the market to position itself well to win the war on talent.

HR Habitat advice - Actions you should take now

Here are some immediate actions you can implement now to be ready for the new employee right to switch off rule:

• Consider reviewing your current policies, particularly as flexible working rights have been amended as of April 2024.There is bound to be some overlap between this and the new right to switch off rule, should this come into effect.
• Monitor the level of out-of-hours work employees are undertaking. This is the only sure way to understand its volume and assess its requirement. It may be that an employer making out-of-hours contact is unreasonable, in which case, you should avoid this from happening.
• Review roles that are seen to work a significant amount of overtime - frequent reviews will allow you to stay on top of role requirements before this becomes detrimental for the employee and the business. 
• Set clear guidelines and conditions for workers who are 'on call' - train managers on the reasonable grounds to contact an employee out of hours.

It goes without saying that there is huge risk if this is mismanaged particularly if an employee declares they have suffered a detriment due to the companies practices around excessive working. For example, work related stress, mental health concerns etc can all be a result of excessive working. Employees can make claims to the Employment Tribunal if they feel they have been exploited or treated unfavourably. Seek professional HR advice before addressing this internally.