UK Labour Party Hasn’t Decided on Mandatory Work Flexibility

(Bloomberg) -- The Labour Party supports flexible work options to ease tightness in the job market, but hasn’t decided whether to make it mandatory for employers should Labour win the next election, the shadow business secretary said.

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Workers are demanding more flexibility to support family life, but there are different ways to achieve that — whether by mandating it or via incentives to business, Jonathan Reynolds said in a BBC interview Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.

The Times earlier this week reported that Labour was considering making working from home a legal right for Britons if the party comes to power, citing a leaked policy platform. Reynolds said the party’s position is still under discussion.

Read more: Remote Work Rises in UK Hubs

“I don’t want to preach to businesses,” he said. “But we will work with them. And I do think people look at things at the minute and say you need jobs that you can have a life around.”

The UK must hold elections by January 2025, and Labour has been leading the ruling Conservative party in most opinion polls by double digits for months.

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