Labour Party’s Proposal To Give Employees The Right To “Switch Off” From Work

It was a Labour Party manifesto pledge that they would introduce a right to switch off for employees. This is understood to mean that employees would have the right not to work outside of their working hours or to be contacted by their employer etc. The idea is that this promotes a healthier work-life balance.

Code of Practice

A report in the Times newspaper last week suggested that the approach to this might be for a Code of Practice to be introduced which Employment Tribunals would have regard to in considering claims. The upshot of this would be that rather than a freestanding, enforceable right to switch off, those bringing claims could refer to any breach of the Code of Practice in claims about existing employment rights and potentially be awarded increased compensation if their claims are successful and the Tribunal finds that there has been a breach of the Code of Practice.

Nothing is finalised yet but the use of Codes of Practice (usually issued by ACAS) to which the Tribunal have reference will be familiar to people managers and those in HR and so this approach could follow a similar pattern.

Proponents of the right to switch off might well be disappointed if this is the way that Labour proceeds, however, as the impact of this will be extremely limited given that employers will only face the consequences where employees bring successful Tribunal claims.

Comment

Any attempt to create a freestanding right to switch off and an entitlement to bring standalone claims about alleged breaches would have likely been controversial with employers and business leaders given the other significant employment law changes on the Labour Government’s radar.