Right to Switch Off

Labour made a manifesto pledge to ‘bring in the ‘right to switch off’ in their wide-ranging ‘Make Work Pay’ paper. The Times newspaper recently reported that the government is now looking at how such a right will operate in practice.

To this end, the Government is considering increases in tribunal compensation where ‘right to switch off’ has been breached, but they have made it clear that there is no decision as yet.
The article outlines that the Government is considering an approach whereby a Code of Practice on the right to switch off is introduced (probably by ACAS). A failure to follow this code would not provide a free-standing right to bring a claim in the employment tribunal. However, any failure to follow it could be taken into account as an aggravating factor when deciding the level of compensation to be awarded in other tribunal claims.

This is in line with the current application of the ACAS Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Matters. A failure to follow this can result in the amount of compensation awarded being increased by up to 25% at present.

There is a lack of detail on issues such as what, exactly, will this code of practice mandate, what level of uplift might apply and what claims will it apply to?

The Times reports that the penalty would apply “if companies are shown to repeatedly breach agreements on out-of-hours working”. This may mean the any breaches of internal policies may be considered in arriving at the penalty.

August 2024