Western Morning News (Saturday)
High time to get back to the office
Home working is the norm for millions. But is it the answer, asks Ian L Handford
WHATEVER happened to employment law? The working from home guidance was a phrase used by Prime Minister Boris Johnson when Covid struck and yet in my view, with many years experience in business, it no longer fit for purpose.
I cannot understand why working from home has been allowed to become so prevalent, especially now that the most serious impact of the Covid crisis and the need to isolate has passed.
The PM’s phrase on “guidance” may have seemed appropriate at the height of the pandemic. Yet today the working from home guidence is being used arbitrarily by millions of employees who, in my view, simply refuse to return to their workplace.
Lockdowns and social distancing have ended and yet the requirement to return work appears often to be ignored – in spite of legal conditions within some workers’ contracts of employment. We all have to abide by rules laid down by Parliament whether or not we like them. The alternative is anarchy.
Having spent three decades as a member of the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) Policy Team my brief was Employment Law. Today it seems to me some employees are choosing to ignore their contracts. That puts them at risk if any dispute arises with their employer in the future.
At his last party conference Boris Johnson announced that everyone should return to work where practical. Yet by December 2021 we know that only an average of 20% of employees had responded positively. Many London commuters and a large number of civil servants everywhere appeared in their offices on average two days a week.
Yet in retail and food, healthcare, tourism, transport and even education and the self employed, normal working is required. The Taxpayers Alliance a non-party political lobbying organisation similar to the FSB said: “If flexible working is to stay, council officials should be moved out and the savings (on premises) passed on to hardpressed residents”.
Meanwhile a survey by the Daily Mail found that when 100 of the largest councils in England were asked if new working practices had been adopted, 25 councils responded to say “most employees” were working one day per week in the office. Five others confirmed staff were working two days a week. The answers came in response to the Mail’s question “had they either allowed or encouraged flexible working.” Cornwall Council said that staff wanted to now work two days per week at the office though no final decision had yet been taken.
Cornwall pointed out was that if just half of their 5,000 staff became “hybrid workers” it could sell premises and achieve a capital receipt, while making a maintenance saving of around £32m.
In making his statement on working from home the Prime Minister gave no thought to the implications on the contracts of employment. Some companies will have drawn up new home-working or hybrid working contracts. But it seems to me many employees are now making up their own terms of work on the hoof – including the hours they will work and where those hours will be spent. Even many of our major banks are caught up in this dilemma.
In many original contracts of employment employers have the right to control the method of doing the work and the right to suspension or dismissed employees, subject to employment law.
The national civil service list issued in April 2022 confirmed that 75% of major offices of state in London, now currently get less than 48% of their staff present daily, with the rest taking advantage of working from home – whether as part of an accepted “hybrid scheme” or not.
Contracts of employment should be there to protect both sides from exploitation – the employee and the employer. Working from home seems to be changing the entire way people live their lives and balance work and home. There are clearly benefits for employees who see a big cut in transport costs and gain more leisure or family time. You could conclude that WFH has prioritised domestic and leisure time as being more important than working for an employer. Is that good for Britain and the economy?
Monday: Beware turning up at Judi Spiers’ house late...she doesn’t like it, as she explains