Labour’s right to switch off – how could the new plan work for employees?

Workers will soon be able to ignore work-related emails and calls outside office hours under new rules to be introduced by the Labour government.

Meeting the party’s “right to switch off” campaign pledge, the plan will see workers empowered to disconnect from their jobs outside regular hours, including the right to refuse to take on extra work at the weekends.

The plan has received renewed backing from Keir Starmer this week, with the prime minister’s deputy spokesperson saying: “This is about ensuring people have some time to rest.”

“Good employers understand that for workers to stay motivated and productive they do need to be able to switch off, and a culture presenteeism can be damaging to productivity.”

The plans are expected to cover workers’ annual leave, meaning bosses would not be allowed to ask employees to carry out work-related tasks while on holiday.

They will come as part of the government’s Plan to Make Work Pay, thought to be spearheaded by new deputy prime minister Angela Rayner.

Other measures in the package were outlined during the King’s Speech in July. They include banning exploitative zero-hours contracts, ending ‘fire and rehire’, and making sick pay available from day one of any job.

Unlike those measures, however, the right to switch off will not be enshrined in law. Instead, it will likely be recommended in the codes of practice for businesses.

The Trades Union Congress general secretary Paul Nowak said: “No one should be pushed to the brink because of their job.

“Ever-increasing hours, pace and expectations at work are causing problems up and down the country. This is a recipe for burnt-out Britain.

“So we welcome these measures to tackle work intensity. Introducing a right to switch off will let workers properly disconnect outside of working hours.”

The policy is popular among voters, with a recent Savanta poll finding 69 per cent supported the right to switch off outside of working hours.

In the UK, there is no currently no official right to disconnect from work, but employers can implement their own policies. Current legislation states that a working week should be no more than 48 hours on average, calculated over a 17-week period.

However, if a boss wants to contact their employee outside of these hours, they can. In theory, they can also pressure them to respond or take on additional work without being sanctioned.

Labour said the policy will ensure that “working from home does not become homes turning into 24/7 offices”, adding that it is inspired by models in Ireland and Belgium.

The code of practice for employers in Ireland gives workers the right not to be regularly required to perform work duties outside normal hours or to be penalised for refusing to do so.

The right to disconnect in Belgium is set in law for all public sector workers and those employed by businesses with at least 20 employees.

Will Stronge, director of The Autonomy Institute think tank and author of Overtime, said: “These kinds of things are really important steps to put boundaries on the working day.

“There should be much more strict limits to when the working day finishes, given that in today's world of remote work, there is often blurring between work and life: answering 'just one more email' and so on.

“The conversation around work-life balance is really important in this country. We’re seeing a huge health epidemic around overwork, workload stress and anxiety.”

However, the director also said the effectiveness of the policy will “come down to the detail”, adding he would like to see a stricter version of the policy like the one that is in place in France.

Under French laws, it is illegal for an employer to reprimand a worker for not responding to out-of-hours calls – and the offence can carry a fine.

British firm Rentokil was fined €60,000 by a French court in 2021 for failing to respect the right to disconnect of an employee based in the country. It was the first fine under the law which came into place in 2016.

The statutory workers’ rights laid out in the King’s Speech are expected to come into place in spring, with the new right to switch off likely to come around the same time.