A UK Labour proposal would allow employees to ignore work emails and calls outside of work hours. This is being done to clarify the line between an employee’s work life and personal life, so that employees do not feel harassed or asked to work beyond office hours.

Imagine coming back from work in the evening and not having to take emails or even calls from your boss until the morning. That could soon be a reality for workers in the UK under a new plan unveiled by the Labour party.

Right to Switch Off

Labour, under Keir Starmer, would legislate for a “right to switch off.” This means that workers will not have to answer any work-related emails or calls during their off-duty hours. It’s all about fostering a better separation between work and personal life.

No Extra Work on Holidays

The new scheme will offer employees time not to work on extra duties during holidays. When one is on leave, he should not worry about work and should instead relax. This rule will prevent bosses from making one work while on leave.

Protecting the Welfare of Workers

A big supporter of the plan, though, is the new deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner. She said that people are working too much and it is causing stress and burnout. Confirming this view was the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, Paul Nowak. “No one should be pushed to the brink because of their job,” he said. “This is a recipe for a burnt-out Britain.”

Popular Among Voters.

A recent poll showed that 69% of people within the UK support the right to switch off outside of working hours. This shows that many people feel the same way about needing a break from work.

Current Rules of Work

UK has no such rule as that which says you are free to not respond to or read work emails or take calls after hours. Maybe there are some companies which have internal rules for this, but these are definitely not legislated ones. The rule is that you can’t work more than an average of 48 hours a week. Even then, if your boss calls you after these hours, they will still expect you to pick up the phone.

Labour policy is inspired by Ireland and Belgium. According to their law, workers do not have to carry out any such work activity outside their normal working hours or work from home/immediately after work. In Belgium, it is a law for employees from the public sector and for businesses that have at least twenty workers.

Already announced during the recent King’s Speech were several new laws pertaining to work, which includes doing away with the zero-hours contracts and putting an end to ‘fire and rehire’ practices, and making available sick pay right from day one of any job. These changes come under the umbrella of the government’s Plan to Make Work Pay.

Health and Work-Life Balance

Will Stronge, the director of thinktank The Autonomy Institute, goes on to argue that there should be much more strict limits to when the working day finishes. He views overwork, and with it, the stress, as developing into a major health problem.

Looking to France for Stricter Rules

Stronge also thinks the UK could learn from France. In France, it’s against the law for a boss to penalise an employee for not picking up work calls and emails out of hours. If they do, the employer can get fined for that. So it means workers can really switch off and not worry about work in their personal time.

The new Labour plan imagines empowering workers to truly switch off from work outside of their contract hours. The party is looking to foster better work-life balances and reduce the levels of stress and burnout in employees through these changes. If it succeeds, it could go a long way toward letting many workers up and down the UK take a long-overdue breather.