Labour is right to focus on flexible work and on a right to disconnect

The Labour Party has published plans to give workers in the UK a right to flexible working, and also a right to disconnect.

 

Prospect has been leading the UK campaign for a right to disconnect, enabling them to switch off digitally when they are not in work. This would help with the problems a lot of people have been facing, especially with home working blurring the boundaries between work and home life, with not being able to switch off.

Prospect General Secretary Mike Clancy, responded:

“Flexible working must be made to work for workers as well as employers. Labour is right to focus on the issue, including on the right to disconnect.

“Prospect polling shows nearly two-thirds of workers back a right to disconnect, because too many have found it hard to be able to switch off from work. The challenge as we exit the pandemic is to make sure we build on the flexibility workers want and reset the boundaries between home and work life.

“Access to genuinely flexible working is something Prospect and other unions have been calling for for some time. But ‘flexible’ has to actually mean ‘flexible’, not simply moving work from the office to home with the same long hours, always on culture.”