Ministers expected to axe ‘right to switch off’ in coming week
Ministers are expected to axe plans to give people a right to “switch off” outside work hours, reports have suggested.
The policy was a central part of Sir Keir Starmer’s manifesto promise of a “New Deal for Working People” aimed at strengthening employment rights.
Employment Bill
It did not appear in the Employment Bill which is currently making its way through Parliament, but there were promises from ministers it would emerge in future.
However, that has now changed, and ministers are expected to say in the coming week that the policy has been dropped, when they table a series of amendments to the Bill, according to the Sunday Times newspaper.
A Government source told the newspaper the “right to switch off is dead”.
Ministers are said to be making the change in a bid to boost business confidence, after the Budget placed extra costs on employers in the form of the national insurance contributions hike.
The Government source added: “Growth that puts money in people’s pockets is the number one priority of this Government’s plan for change.
“That means making Britain the best country in the world to do business and a key part of that is removing unnecessary barriers.”
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So having people on call at any time is beneficial – another small step on the road to serfdom. Well heeled owners of modern day slaves will be greatly relieved.
Growth is a fatuous and self-destructive objective in respect of the material growth our planet cannot afford. Its rewards are never distributed fairly. Growth in culture, personal development, education etc sits lightly on the planet. Its rewards enrich us all. The new strictures placed on employees make a mockery of what is becoming a very weak employment bill. The so-called Labour Party (along with Reform and the Tories) are not friends of working people in Cymru. Nor of non-working people. Time to show the Unionists of the Torela party (the Single Transferable Party plus Farage’s lot) the door! Annibyniaeth! Better… Read more »
What happened to Make Work Pay?
Every human being MUST be able to switch off at some point. If this is not allowed to happen when they are off and in their own unpaid time, it will have to happen during their paid work time or they will have to be paid for 24 hours a day rather than their 8 to 12 hours for example. This, sadly, may seem to be an argument in favour of getting robots in to replace us. I can’t switch off when I’m on a motorway in my truck but there are driverless vehicles coming I believe. Stay out of… Read more »
It’s the implication that employers should have the same access to their staff outside of the working day as they do during working hours that suggests some see the employer-employee arrangement as ownership rather than a mutually beneficial arrangement.
But on this specific point, any contact out of hours should be remunerated at triple time. Faced with justifying that cost to the higher ups, most managers will decide it can wait.
Another promise in the Labour GE manifesto bites the dust following cuts in aid earlier in week.
Labour – the Party of The Bosses
When I had a real job (years ago, before mobile phones etc) we had to do on-call. Not all the time, we had a rota. And if we were on call we were expected to stay within reach of a phone, and to stay sober so that we could drive in if needed. In exchange we received an hours pay for each 8 hours on call. And then double time if we actually went in. Strangely enough, management concluded very rapidly that they didn’t need someone on call every night.