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FT editor Roula Khalaf selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Some call them the scourge of modern working life – the email from the boss arriving in the inbox at 10pm or the ding of WhatsApp group messages long after normal office hours. Should employees have a legal right to disconnect? Britain’s new Labour government has pledged to introduce a “right to disconnect”, as part of a wider package of reforms to workers’ rightsfollowing more than a dozen countries that have introduced safeguards. But Labour The company has apparently decided not to make it a legal right and has instead opted to include it in a code of conduct for companies above a certain size. It makes sense to have toned down its plans.
COVID-era lockdowns led to an expansion of remote working and greater flexibility in scheduling, something that many employees welcomed and have sought to maintain post-pandemic. But they exacerbated the risks of an “always-on” culture – the pernicious blurring of boundaries between work and home life. Some rebalancing and safeguards are needed to prevent abuse.
But adopting overly strict legislation or applying a one-size-fits-all solution would be a mistake. In a globalised environment, many companies – financial, technology or any other that must respond quickly to customer needs – may struggle to function effectively if they cannot reach key employees in an emergency. Many in senior or well-paid positions accept that working and being reachable for longer hours than usual is justified by the pay, rewards and responsibilities they enjoy.
Even those in lower-paid jobs, from healthcare and emergency services to government and the media, acknowledge that responding to events outside of work hours “is part of the job.” And many employees in less senior or high-pressure positions welcome the flexibility, for example, of starting later so they can get the kids to school, but still spend some time catching up on emails in the evening.
The important thing is to prevent harassment or unfair treatment at all levels and, above all, to protect those who are paid less or have less ability to protect themselves from abuse. Employers should not be able to use repeated communications outside of working hours to demand specific responses or actions from their employees as a way of effectively forcing them to work overtime while circumventing rules on overtime and overtime pay.
Countries have restrictions adopted Penalties vary in severity, although actual penalties are usually low. In Portugal, legislation passed in late 2021 says that any company with more than 10 employees can be fined up to €10,000 for contacting employees outside of normal 40-hour workweek hours, except in a genuine emergency. In France, the right to disconnect It doesn’t prevent managers from making calls or sending emails or texts outside of work hours, but they can’t punish employees if they don’t respond until normal hours.
The British Labour Party is said to be in favour of less onerous examples. From Belgium and IrelandThe latter made the issue part of a voluntary code of practice. Employers and staff are expected to negotiate policies setting out normal working hours and the circumstances in which employees can be contacted outside of them. There is no legal right to disconnect, but breaches of the code can be used to support other claims under working time laws in court, potentially increasing payouts if fault is found.
Particularly in the case of the UK, which badly needs foreign investment to boost productivity and growth and has touted its flexible working laws as a competitive advantage, it would be a mistake to go beyond something like the Irish model. There are areas where labour laws should be strengthened, from banning abusive zero-hour contracts to stamping out sweatshops and modern slavery. Protection against sending emails outside working hours is not one of them.