Labour’s campaign pledge to introduce a ‘right to switch off’, as there is in Ireland and Belgium, is a mechanism designed to allow workers to separate their work and home lives and will provide for the right to refuse to take on extra work at weekends.
Under the Working Time Regulations 1998, employees must not work more than 48 hours a week on average unless there is a separate opt-out agreement in place.
Ireland’s right to disconnect was established via a voluntary Code of Practice allowing workers to refuse additional work outside of their normal hours, without being penalised for doing so.
In Belgium, the right to switch off applies to all public sector workers and all private sector businesses employing 20 or more employees.
The UK Government’s approach will be to introduce a Code of Practice setting out normal working hours and including when a worker can be expected to be contacted by their employer.
Breach of the code wouldn’t result in a free-standing right to bring a claim. However, it could be considered as an aggravating factor in other claims and result in compensation awarded in those being increased by up to 25%.
The right to switch off was not noted in the King’s Speech last month, but details of when and how this will be implemented are most likely to be included in the Employment Rights Bill and are expected to come into force in Spring 2025.
More demanding employer expectations and instances of burnout have received increased coverage since the pandemic, which is considered by some to have created an ‘always on’ culture whereby employees are routinely contacted out of hours and expected to respond.
In a bid to tackle burnout, and with employee wellbeing already high on the agenda of many businesses, some employers may wish to support the right to switch off by implementing their own policies, prior to being legally required to do so.
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