Marie Sherlock (Labour)
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On the important conversation in respect of the right to disconnect, there is no doubt that workers are compensating. It is great to hear what Mr. Hegarty and Ms Mangan are saying in respect of all this. Of course, we know that, effectively, for many people the experience has not so much been working from home but, rather, living in the office. The main concern is that some workers need to take the onus themselves to be able to switch off but for others that the onus is not on them; they are pressurised into working late hours, very early mornings, weekends or whatever without compensation. The Labour Party brought forward legislative proposals in November 2020 on a right to disconnect and we still believe we need to have that in legislation.

Obviously, leadership is important, particularly from Departments and the public service. It is important to state that from the accounts I am getting in from various workers across the public sector, some Departments have been very good but others, including the sponsoring Department of this legislation, could do a lot better. I am thinking of two other Departments in particular whose record has been very poor, frankly, in facilitating workers who wish to work remotely. It is important to put on record that Departments need to show greater leadership. There is an onus on them to show leadership because we cannot expect the private sector to step up to the mark if the public sector itself is not doing so.