Why 'right to disconnect' can be transformational for staff and companies: Gillian Reid

Working from home on a hybrid or full-time basis became the norm. Between October to December 2019 and January to March 2022, homeworking in the UK more than doubled from 4.7 million to 9.9 million people.

It’s no secret that the ‘always on’ culture has caused many workers suffered from burnout, stress and disturbed sleep.

For this reason, certain countries globally have introduced the ‘right to disconnect’ (RTD) – regulations which prevent employers from penalising workers for not engaging with work communications outside of working hours. Those leading the charge include Australia and France.

International RTD policies have given rise to calls for similar regulations in the UK. This raises a number of interesting questions and considerations from an employment law perspective.

Employers do already have a legal duty to protect workers from stress at work by doing a risk assessment and putting in place preventive measures.

Under current employment laws, employees can’t work more than 48 hours a week on average, without signing an ‘opt-out’ agreement.

However, there is currently no legal right to disconnect per se.

The right to disconnect would mean that employees who work from home should not be expected to be constantly available after hours.

It would go further than traditional flexible working policies by allowing employees the right to switch off their communication devices and send automatic replies if they are not available, without being penalised for doing so.

It does not, as is commonly believed, forbid employers from contacting staff outside of working hours – it simply prevents them from penalising workers for being unavailable after working hours have ended.

Workloads will need to be carefully managed to avoid relying on out-of-hours working to meet deadlines as this could inadvertently penalise workers during work hours.

Additionally, a concern raised by many employers is an inevitable initial bottleneck while companies are updating policies and procedures for handling RTD requests, which will need to be managed as well.

Angela Rayner, the Labour Party deputy leader and shadow secretary for the future of work said “flexible working means work fitting around people’s lives, not dictating their lives” and has backed the need for a right to disconnect in the party’s general election manifesto.

For many, it would be transformational and, what’s more, RTD has the potential to introduce truly flexible working and remove many of the difficulties faced by what was once embraced as the solution to work-life balance.

It seems time, then, to introduce the right to disconnect to the UK – so long as it is carefully managed to meet the requirements of employees and employers.

Naturally, employers need to know what they need to be doing now and what they might be expected to do in the future to meet employee needs.

Gillian Reid is Head of Employment for Hethertons Solicitors