Does Covid-19 herald a right to disconnect from work at home?

Thursday 11 June 2020

Since lockdown was imposed on the UK and employees were encouraged not to attend work if they were able to work from home, many employees have experienced a new, and in some cases alien, way of working. Spare rooms and kitchen tables up and down the country have been converted into makeshift offices for who knows how long.

But with homeworking comes a blurring of the line between being in work and being at home. With the high level of connectivity that comes with living in the digital age the concept of the ‘working day’ is becoming eroded and employees are working far in excess of a 48 hour working week. Employees can no longer simply switch off at 5.00pm, especially if their own home is now their place of work.

The trade unions have identified one possible solution to the problem of employees working excessive hours due to home working: give employees the right to disconnect from work. In summary, under this proposal employees would have the legal right to not to answer their phone or deal with e-mails outside of their contracted hours.

Whilst this may seem unworkable to many, this law has been in force in France since 2016. In fact, in 2018, a UK employer was fined for requiring an employee based in France to keep his telephone on permanently so that he could always be contacted by colleagues and customers, even outside of working hours.

It is not hard to see given the significant changes Covid-19 has brought about to the way we work, that such a law may not be far off in the UK, with such rights being enforced by unions on behalf of employees who are forced to work out of hours on a daily basis.

Employers are advised to review their practices and procedures for home working, and assess what are their expectations of employees when working from home and dealing with workplace issues outside of contracted hours.

Whilst we may not yet have a right to disconnect in the UK, it is always good practice to make sure that the demands of the employer, even in these strange times, do not jeopardise the health of its workforce (not least because of the duty of care owed by all employers to their staff).

If you have any questions about the right to disconnect, please email or call our Employment Law team today on 0113 207 0000.