Scottish civil servants get new 'right to disconnect' and ignore after-hours emails

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Civil servants working for the Scottish Government have become the first in Britain to win the right to ignore work emails and phone calls after the end of the day work.
Under a new agreement negotiated with the unions, managers have been officially informed that employees have the "right to disconnect" and not be harassed after the end of their contractual hours.
This comes amid concerns that the proliferation of email and smartphones is creating an “always on” culture in some jobs that extends the working day and exploits workers.
New guidelines included in the Scottish Government's Public Sector Compensation Policy 2023-23 make it clear that staff should not be required to work outside their normal working hours.
It also stipulates q All employees have a duty to respect each other's downtime by not calling co-workers or waiting for responses to emails outside of working hours.
"The right to disconnect creates a safety net for staff to ensure that no one there is pressured or required to work in ways or at times that are atypical of them,” said Richard Hardy, Scottish Secretary of the public service union Prospect, on behalf of the Council of Scottish Government Unions.
A "right to disconnect" is a demand from the Trades Union Congress (TUC), which in 2019 found that workers workers worked over £32 billion in unpaid overtime a year.
The Scottish Government is believed to be the first public sector employer in the UK to officially implement the policy. It announced in the spring of this year that it was exploring this approach.
Under the agreement, employees can only be contacted in exceptional circumstances, such as if an office is closed.
They could also be called if the contact has been agreed in advance or if they are explicitly intended to be on call.
Pollster Ipsos MORI found in March that 60 % of UK adults support a legal right to disconnect for all employees, with just one in 10 against such a measure.
Andrew Pakes, research director at the Prospect union, said: "This agreement, the first of its kind in the UK, is an important step on the road to reclaiming our family life from the crisis. encroachment of modern technology.. We all benefit from this technology, but good working practices have lagged behind its introduction into the workplace.
“The inability to disconnect is a major cause of stress at work, which inevitably has an impact on performance and productivity.It is t...

Politics Dec 13, 2022 0 38 Add to Reading List

Scottish civil servants get new 'right to disconnect' and ignore after-hours emails

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Civil servants working for the Scottish Government have become the first in Britain to win the right to ignore work emails and phone calls after the end of the day work.

Under a new agreement negotiated with the unions, managers have been officially informed that employees have the "right to disconnect" and not be harassed after the end of their contractual hours.

This comes amid concerns that the proliferation of email and smartphones is creating an “always on” culture in some jobs that extends the working day and exploits workers.

New guidelines included in the Scottish Government's Public Sector Compensation Policy 2023-23 make it clear that staff should not be required to work outside their normal working hours.

It also stipulates q All employees have a duty to respect each other's downtime by not calling co-workers or waiting for responses to emails outside of working hours.

"The right to disconnect creates a safety net for staff to ensure that no one there is pressured or required to work in ways or at times that are atypical of them,” said Richard Hardy, Scottish Secretary of the public service union Prospect, on behalf of the Council of Scottish Government Unions.

A "right to disconnect" is a demand from the Trades Union Congress (TUC), which in 2019 found that workers workers worked over £32 billion in unpaid overtime a year.

The Scottish Government is believed to be the first public sector employer in the UK to officially implement the policy. It announced in the spring of this year that it was exploring this approach.

Under the agreement, employees can only be contacted in exceptional circumstances, such as if an office is closed.

They could also be called if the contact has been agreed in advance or if they are explicitly intended to be on call.

Pollster Ipsos MORI found in March that 60 % of UK adults support a legal right to disconnect for all employees, with just one in 10 against such a measure.

Andrew Pakes, research director at the Prospect union, said: "This agreement, the first of its kind in the UK, is an important step on the road to reclaiming our family life from the crisis. encroachment of modern technology.. We all benefit from this technology, but good working practices have lagged behind its introduction into the workplace.

“The inability to disconnect is a major cause of stress at work, which inevitably has an impact on performance and productivity.It is t...