Advisers and insurers may need to rethink the working hours of their employees and adapt worker contracts to comply with new right to switch off legislation.
Labour’s election manifesto commits to implementing Labour’s Plan to Make Work Pay: Delivering a New Deal for Working People in full.
In this plan Labour said it: “will bring in the ‘right to switch off’, so working from home does not result in homes turning into 24/7 offices.
Right to disconnect
Melanie Stancliffe, partner at law firm Cripps, spoke to Health & Protection about what this all means for intermediaries as advisers up and down the country turn on their out of office as they enjoy a well-earned break.
“Labour has long indicated that the right to disconnect would be introduced, as in Ireland, continental countries and Australia,” Stancliffe said.
“Before the election, it’s New Deal for Working People plan said Labour would bring in the ‘right to switch off’, so that workers have a right to disconnect from work outside of working hours and not be contacted by their employer outside of those hours.“
Not an absolute ban on contact
But Stancliffe further pointed out that the rules do not mean an absolute ban on contact – with two areas of flexibility expected for employers.
“The new law is likely to only apply to larger employers, it is likely for those with 250 employees or more,“ Stancliffe continued.
“And the stated intention is that employers and employees will agree when outside of hours the worker can be contacted – for urgent matters would be allowed.
“This means once the detail of the law is known, employers will need to rethink the working hours of their people and change their contracts so these reflect the hours advisers will need to work.
“New policies will need to be created to set out when employees will be expected to accept calls and reply to mails and messages and when they won’t. Then, employers will need to train their people, so they avoid claims that an employee who disconnected hasn’t been promoted or paid less for disconnecting.”