The Employment Rights Bill that will be introduced to Parliament today won’t contain provisions for a “right to switch off” from work communications outside office hours. Labour has moved the measure to a “next steps” document that outlines the government’s ambitions for future legislation on workers’ rights. But British workers strongly support a right to switch off, according to polling conducted exclusively for the New Statesman by Ipsos Karian and Box, which also shows the troubling extent to which work communications encroach on the private lives of British workers.
The poll, which surveyed 1,279 British adults in work, found that 70 per cent of British workers would support a new law that protected their right not to be routinely contacted, or otherwise expected to work, outside their contracted hours. For all workers under the age of 54 the support was higher, at 73 per cent.
This support is explained by the fact that work communications intrude significantly on workers’ personal lives. More than half of workers aged 18-54 said they had checked work emails or messages while on holiday in the past year, and most workers said they checked work communications while on sick leave.
This is particularly true for younger workers. Of those aged 18-34, more than half said they’d also checked work communications while at a wedding, a family gathering or other social event that was important to them. Nearly a third of the youngest age group (aged 18-24) said they’d been reprimanded for not responding to work emails or messages at evenings and weekends, which suggests some employers expect their youngest workers to be constantly on call.
A company phone doesn’t offer much defence: a third of workers say their employer contacts them on their personal phone outside office hours, despite using a separate device for work.
Workers say these intrusions don’t actually help them get more work done; 40 per cent said it would have no impact on their productivity, and 38 per cent said it would improve the general productivity of British workers overall. A majority (56 per cent) said their mental health would be improved by a “right to switch off” law.
Why has the new law been shelved, then? Where similar laws have been introduced, such as in Australia and the state of California, the right to switch off has been opposed by employers and business groups. Employers in the UK have told the government they’re concerned that new legislation could lead to a new wave of claims and tribunals.
It’s fair to say that the UK economy has a lot of high-value services sectors (banking, law, accountancy, consulting, IT) in which taking the whole workforce offline at 6pm is going to be a significant disadvantage. It’s no coincidence that the people most likely to check their emails on holiday were those in London, where these sectors employ more people. The very high wages offered to City lawyers and investment bankers are partly based on the assumption of long hours.
Large parts of the economy, however, come with very different wages and no such excuse for employees to be endlessly available. The record number of people unable to work due to long-term sickness is one of the most important problems in the economy, and it is very important to listen to workers when they talk about the factors that make them unwell. Research from countries that have implemented right to switch off legislation, such as France, suggests it leads to a better work-life balance and fewer health issues, especially among remote workers.
The problem is that Britain works at two speeds; our economy is geographically and financially tilted towards one end. It is very hard to make laws that defend the rights of all workers without any trade-off in competitiveness elsewhere. The right to switch off may remain on the “nice to have” pile for some time.
[See also: Rachel Reeves: Richest will bear the brunt of Budget tax rises]
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