Flexible working needs to be genuinely flexible

There have been various reports in the press recently that the government is considering bringing in some kind of legal right to flexible working or to working from home.

 

Many workers have been working from home during the pandemic. One of the downsides of this pattern of working is that it can be hard to switch off but there are advantages for some, especially if they have caring responsibilities and space at home for a proper workspace.

General Secretary of Prospect Mike Clancy, responded to the reports: 

“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’. That means being able to negotiate your start and finish times, and where you work enabling you to arrive at a work solution that benefits both employer and employee. Keeping the same rigid hours but having to swap the office for home is not flexibility.

“There is also a real risk that we end up with a two-tier workforce, further divided between those who can work from home being given flexibility, and those who can’t being given none. Flexibility cannot be the preserve solely of management and more senior grades.

“Finally, if flexibility isn’t managed properly you can end up with people being pressurised into working while they are off, but someone else is not. You can’t have the situation where, for example, a parent who has agreed the hours to allow them to do the school run still has to answer emails on their phone because somebody else is already on the office. That’s why we need the government to emulate countries like Ireland, and bring in a right to disconnect so that when you’re not due to be working you are genuinely able to switch off.”