Business secretary attacks presenteeism in defence of working from home

Labour is due to introduce a new employment package that includes working from home

Secretary of State for Business and Trade Jonathan Reynolds is due to unveil a new employment rights apacoa(Stefan Rousseau/PA) (PA Wire)

The Labour business secretary has criticised the former government’s policies on flexible working as “bizarre”, claiming it declared “war” on people working from home.

Speaking about workers’ rights from Riyadh, Jonathan Reynolds alluded to comments made by Tory politicians and said: “That’s pretty bizarre given the economic position the country was in and the real business agenda that needs to be pursued.”

It comes as Labour is due to unveil one of its most radical pieces of legislation in the form of an employment rights package.

It aims to protect employees from unfair dismissal, a ban on zero-hours contracts and a right to flexible working by default.

He insisted, however, that he would not be returning to the past, stressing that Labour was no longer dependent on unions.

Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds (PA Wire)

“They’re always a part of the Labour movement and a welcome one,” he said. “But to try and present this as some sort of 1970s paradigm is a bit cliched and out of touch to be honest.”

He also said home working could aid productivity. “It does contribute to productivity, it does contribute to [staff] resilience, their ability to stay working for an employer,” he said in an interview with The Times newspaper.

Speaking about their plans for flexible working, Mr Reynolds recognised that there were occasions when it was “absolutely necessary” for employees to be in the office, adding that work from home would not be a hard-and-fast rule.

Working from home, he suggests, will ultimately contribute to levelling up. “The UK has very significant regional inequality. It could play a significant contribution to tackling that,” he says.

“A lot of businesses will say their motivation for being a workplace that offers this is because it opens up a much wider group of talent that they can recruit … there are real economic benefits to be had from the UK adopting this approach.”

He says that most businesses already provide workers with rights above and beyond what they could have expected.

He added: “The pledge of the Labour government is not just that we get the economy growing, it’s that we get it growing in a way that everyone benefits from. I feel every time we have a session with business where we are able to talk candidly they are reassured by what we are saying.”