Artificial Intelligence (Regulation and Employment Rights) Bill

31. Statutory right to disconnect

    The Employment Rights Act 1996 is amended by the insertion after section 63K of a new section as follows:

“PART 6B

STATUTORY RIGHT TO DISCONNECT

63L. Statutory right to disconnect

1. For the purposes of this Part, “agreed working hours” means the period of time in respect of which an employer has agreed to remunerate his employee, and which is not holiday time or any other form of paid leave.
2. Unless the employer can prove otherwise, an employee’s “agreed working hours” will be as stated in any statement produced in accordance with sections 1, 2, 4, 7A and 7B Employment Rights Act 1996.
3. An employer shall not require an employee employed by him to monitor or respond to any work-related communications, or to carry out any work, outside of the employee’s normal working hours unless, and to the extent that a different arrangement has been agreed by way of collective agreement within the meaning of section 178 TULRCA 1992 or by a relevant workforce agreement.
4. Subsection (3) does not apply where the employer can show that there is a genuine economic or functional emergency threatening the fair running of the employer which justifies work-related communications, or the carrying out of any work, outside of A’s normal working hours.
5. The employer must send a statement to each employee explaining that there is a right to disconnect save in an emergency; before sending such a statement the employer should consult with any recognised trade union on the terms of the statement and take into account any relevant guidance from ACAS.
6. The Secretary of State shall make regulations as to the timing of the first statement in subsection (5).
7. The statement in subsection (5) above must be re-issued every 12 months.
8. For the purposes of this section an agreement is a “workforce agreement” if it meets the conditions for a workforce agreement set out in Schedule 1 to the Working Time Regulations 1998.
9. ACAS must prepare and publish a code of practice for employers, employees and trade unions in relation to this section.
10. Before preparing a code or amendments under this section, ACAS must consult the Secretary of State and such of the following as ACAS considers appropriate—
    1. trade unions,
    2. employers’ organisations, and
    3. persons who appear to ACAS to represent the interests of employees and employers.

63M. Enforcement

1. An employee may present a complaint to an employment tribunal that there has been a breach of section 63L(3) by his employer.
2. An employment tribunal shall not consider a complaint under this section unless it is presented:
   1. before the end of the period of 6 months beginning with the date of the act or failure to act to which the complaint relates or, where that act or failure is part of a series of similar acts or failures, the last of them, or
   2. within such further period as the tribunal considers reasonable in a case where it is satisfied that it was not reasonably practicable for the complaint to be presented before the end of that period of 6 months.
3. For the purposes of subsection (2)—
   1. where an act extends over a period, the “date of the act” means the last day of that period, and
   2. a deliberate failure to act shall be treated as done when it was decided on,

   and, in the absence of evidence establishing the contrary, an employer, shall be taken to decide on a failure to act when he does an act inconsistent with doing the failed act or, if he has done no such inconsistent act, when the period expires within which he might reasonably have been expected to do the failed act if it was to be done.

4. Section 207B (extension of time limits to facilitate conciliation before institution of proceedings) applies for the purposes of subsection (2).

63N. Remedy

1. Where an employment tribunal finds a complaint under section 63N well-founded, the tribunal –
   1. Shall make a declaration to that effect, and
   2. May make an award of compensation to be paid to the employee in respect of the act or failure to act to which the complaint relates.
2. Where an employment tribunal finds a complaint under this section well-founded, the tribunal shall order the employer to pay the worker damages in a sum not exceeding an amount equivalent to the worker’s pro rata daily wages for each day on which a breach has occurred.
3. The Secretary of State shall make regulations by  order for a mechanism to update the maximum sum in subsection (2) on annual basis.“

32. Right not to be subject to detriment in relation to the right to disconnect

    1. After section 47G of the Employment Rights Act 1996 insert:

       “47H. Right to disconnect

       1. An employee or worker has the right not to be subjected to a detriment by any act, or deliberate failure to act, by the employee’s employer done on the ground that the employee failed or refused to monitor or respond to any work-related communications or to carry out any work outside of his normal working hours.
       2. Subsection (1) does not apply if the detriment in question amounts to dismissal within the meaning of Part 10.”
    2. Section 48 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 is amended as follows: in subsection (1) for “47F or 47G” substitute “47F, 47G or 47H”.