National Working From Home Day 2022
As we reported in a recent article, National Working From Home Day 2022 takes place this coming Friday, the 20th May 2022.
National Working From Home Day 2022 forms part of Work Wise Week 2022, which is taking place this week from the 15th May 2022 – 21st May 2022.
National Working From Home Day is an initiative organised by Work Wise UK, with the aim of promoting smarter and more flexible working practices.
The latest evidence highlights that working from home as part of a hybrid arrangement remains high in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, with the return to the office having plateaued over the last month, following the lifting of restrictions earlier this year.
According to data from Remit Consulting, office occupancy at certain times is only around a quarter of what it was pre-pandemic, increasing to a third mid-working week, whilst passenger numbers on the Tube in to the City of London are running at just half of the numbers that used the service prior to February 2020. Indeed, the evidence shows that workers in the City of London are most likely to be working from home on Mondays and Fridays. With the data showing that Thursdays have the highest office attendance levels, as a percentage of the Thursday numbers, just 75% of City workers attend the office on Mondays, and 78% on Fridays.
Lorna Landells from Remit Consulting states: "While there are weekly fluctuations, the volume of staff choosing to return to their desks on a daily basis appears to have plateaued."
Moreover, the Trades Union Congress (TUC), in its response to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy's consultation on flexible working, called upon the Government to make flexible working, including working from home, the default. They argue that: "The experience of the pandemic has significantly changed the landscape of flexible working...[and]...sparked public conversations about what the future of work should look like, including where, how and when we work."
The TUC add: "There is widespread recognition of the role that flexible working can play in ensuring certain groups, including women, disabled workers and older are able to access and stay in work. Making flexible working available in all but the most exceptional of circumstances is essential for promoting greater gender equality....., [to] ensure disabled workers [can] work...without being treated with stigma or discriminated against...., [and to] encourage [older workers to continue]....to work."
National Minimum Wage Report For 2020/21
The latest report from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) on the enforcement of the National Minimum Wage (NMW) and the National Living Wage (NLW) for the year 2020/21, shows that some employers initially failed for a variety of reasons to pay 23 year olds and 24 year olds the correct wage following the extension to include them in the ambit of the NLW.
With effect from the 1st April 2021, the scope of the national living wage was extended from all those aged 25 and over, to all those aged 23 and over. Hence, those aged 23-24, who prior to the 1st April 2021 were being paid the national minimum wage of £8.20 per hour, from the 1st April 2021 had to be paid at least the national living wage of £8.91 per hour, an increase of 8.7%.
Nevertheless, it appears that some employers were caught out by the change in the rules, as according to the BEIS report, "some underpayment may have arisen from an employer’s failure to uplift their employees pay in line with the change in age band to bring 23-year-olds into scope of the NLW. For example, the 2021 line shows a peak at around 92% of the 2021 rate, roughly equivalent to the 2020 21-24 rate (£8.20).
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