As the new government works on delivering a bill offering workers the right to switch off, Jonathan Reynolds has described the previous administration’s disdain for remote working as ‘pretty bizarre’
Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds has spoken up for technology-enabled flexible working and described the last government’s repeated drives to force workers back into offices as “pretty bizarre”.
Reynolds said he believed that giving workers the opportunity to work remotely could boost productivity, contribute to economic growth and help employers retain talent they might otherwise lose. His comments came in an interview with The Times this week, against the backdrop of the government’s pending Employment Rights Bill, which is due to be introduced into parliament in the coming weeks.
The bill will look to ban exploitative zero-hours contracts, end “fire-and-rehire” practices and repeal legislation introduced under the last government that was designed to guarantee minimum service levels in public services during strike action.
It is also expected to offer the right to flexible working “by default”, the right to “disconnect” when staff are outside of working hours, and to provide immediate protection from unfair dismissal.
In what seems like a swipe at the last government’s regular battles with civil servants keen to maintain the WFH freedoms introduced during the Coronavirus pandemic, Reynolds said good employers understood the need to judge staff on outcomes rather than “a culture of presenteeism”.
“Jacob Rees-Mogg made this big thing as business secretary [in] declaring war on people working from home,” he told The Times. “That’s pretty bizarre given the economic position the country was in and the real business agenda that needs to be pursued.”
Reynolds said that while there were situations when it was “absolutely necessary” for staff to be present in their regular workplaces, flexible working had productivity benefits to offer both staff and employers.
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“We’ve had flexible working laws for quite some time in the UK,” he said. “I think where people reach agreement with their employer … it does contribute to productivity, it does contribute to their resilience, their ability to stay working for an employer.”
Separately, The Times reports that statistics on the occupancy of Whitehall departments have been halted, with no plans to resume them. The paper understands that ministers have concerns about their “accuracy and utility”.
The paper also reports that some ministers are taking a “flexible and pragmatic” approach to the rule which required civil servants to spend 60% of their time in the office. But, the picture is mixed: it is understood that some departments are now asking senior civil servants work in the office for four days of the week.
Reynolds told the newspaper that the productivity gains WFH could offer also had the potential to contribute to tackling regional inequalities by increasing the labour pool from which companies could draw suitably talented staff.
“A lot of businesses will say their motivation for being a workplace that offers [flexible working] is because it opens up a much wider group of talent that they can recruit,” he said. “There are real economic benefits to be had from the UK adopting this approach.”
Some reports have suggested the Employment Rights Bill could include a right for full-time staff to ask to work a four-day week that condenses their regular Monday-Friday hours into fewer days.
“The pledge of the Labour government is not just that we get the economy growing, it’s that we get it growing in a way that everyone benefits from,” Reynolds said.