Responsible Business

The end of late-night emails from

the boss?

Employment solicitor at Morecrofts, Charles Millett, looks at a workforce’s rights to ‘disconnect’ outside their working hours.

AS our working culture has evolved in the technological era to keep pace with the times, an inevitable consequence has been the huge increase in out of hours email, text and WhatsApp communications between employers and their staff.

Thinking back 20 years or so, it would have been the norm to ignore any emails sent after leaving the workplace and to deal with them the next day. The same would have applied to emails sent while somebody was on holiday. Now that most of us have smartphones, we are never far away from our emails and by virtue of that fact, we are only a passcode or screen face recognition away from the workplace at any given time, whether that be first thing in the morning or the last thing at night.

The sudden increase in remote working that has been necessitated by the response to the Covid-19 pandemic has increased the expectation that many employees should read and check their emails, text messages or WhatsApp messages outside of the normal working hours. Of course, the very phrase “normal working hours” may different from one person to the next, so that somebody working a different shift pattern from a work colleague may well be communicating with their colleague outside the colleague’s working hours without intending to do so.

The Office for National Statistics has found that 35.9% of the UK’s employed population did at least some of their work from home last year. These people on average did around six hours of unpaid overtime each week, much of it possibly taken up by reading communications from their employer and colleagues and responding out of normal working hours.

In France, it has been an entitlement for the past four years for an employee to “disconnect” from their work. In Ireland, a new code of practice was recently introduced to require employers to include messages on emails to remind their staff that there is no requirement to reply to emails out of hours. How effective this will be is debatable, as by the time the email has been read, the employee is probably already back in “work mode” and thinking about what was in the email.

The Government’s Flexible Working Taskforce is currently looking at hybrid working and how this will operate in practice. Importantly, this will include considering the right to disconnect. What remains to be seen is to what extent the encouragement to disconnect from work will be guidance rather than strict law.

If it is mere guidance, it may not have the desired effect, as if an employee believes their employer expects them to respond out of hours, it is likely they will still feel an obligation to do so.

We should also remember that as we are no longer members of the EU, any rules passed by the EU to reflect this trend and to limit out of hours contact with employees across its member states will not be applicable to workers in the UK.

Merseyside business and sport combine to boost STEAM skills

Everton in the Community has partnered with Liverpoolbased gifting and rewards company Appreciate Group to launch the pioneering new E-STEAM project, combining robots with football to inspire children in Merseyside to engage with technology.

The charity’s new E-STEAM programme is delivering fun and imaginative learning to around 2,000 children aged five to 16 in 63 schools across the Liverpool City Region, to encourage them to aspire for future careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths (STEAM) subjects.

The programme sees Everton in the Community tutors use programmable robots on football pitch-themed mats to transform the way children learn, create, and invent through coding and technology.

The aim of the project is to reduce the education inequality gap that exists in STEAM topics for children from more disadvantaged communities, an issue that has been exacerbated by school closures during the pandemic.

The ground-breaking programme is backed by a range of partners including Appreciate Group, one of the UK’s leading gifting and engagement providers. The Liverpool-based firm has funded the state-of-the-art Sphero robots as part of its commitment to supporting young people in the City Region.

“Like many businesses, technology is at the heart of our strategy so it’s vital the workers of tomorrow have the digital and STEAM skills we will need to remain successful,” said Andy Hammerton, Head of Corporate Affairs at Appreciate Group. “Being able to help local young people aspire to into future careers is a privilege and we’re delighted to be supporting Everton in the Community on this important programme.

“The programme illustrates how innovation can be brought into the classroom to help children learn valuable skills in an engaging way. It’s a pleasure to be involved and see children enjoying the fun interaction the programme provides.”

STEAM learning is proven to help young people to develop important personal and social skills, such as problem solving, critical thinking, communication and teamwork; all skills that are most likely to be in demand in 2025 according to a recent report by the World Economic Forum Future of Jobs.