Amid the criticism, one key group is being overlooked – disabled workers.
Many on the right have long been critical of working from home, a trend that has surged since the Covid-19 pandemic.
In 2021, Rishi Sunak suggested that staff will quit their jobs if they can’t use the office, while Jake Berry joked that civil servants weren’t working from home but “woke-ing.”
But the most memorable dig came from Jacob Rees-Mogg who, in 2022, left condescending notes on government workers’ vacant desks mocking them for working from home.
Now, as employers consider returning workers to the office, right-wing media outlets are ramping up the anti-remote working rhetoric.
“British workers are the second most reluctant in the entire world to go into the office with just TWO days a week on average,” headlined GB News this week. The report cited a study by the property firm JLL, which surveyed 12,000 workers in 44 countries and found that only workers in the Philippines are less likely than UK employees to head into the office.
However, amid the criticism, one key group is being overlooked – disabled workers.
Remote and hybrid work have proven to be lifelines for many living with disabilities or long-term health conditions, new research has revealed.
The study was carried out by researchers from Lancaster University, the Work Foundation at Lancaster University, Manchester Metropolitan University, and Universal Inclusion. It was funded by the Nuffield Foundation.
It found that 6.64 million people work from home in Britain – one in five – and nearly a fifth of them are disabled (1.16 million).
In a survey of more than 1,200 people with disabilities, 80% said that working from home has a positive impact when it comes to managing their health. 85 percent of those surveyed said they feel working from home is essential or very important when looking for a new job, and nearly one in three who already work in hybrid roles would like to spend more time working from home.
Rebecca Florisson, lead analyst at the Work Foundation at Lancaster University, explained how rather than being an ‘optional extra,’ remote work is vital in enabled many disabled people get into and stay in work.
Florisson points to a recent government study that showed a quarter of those out of work and claiming health and disability benefits state they might be able to work if they could do so remotely.
“Yet recent calls by employers to return to the office overlook the critical perspectives and experiences of disabled workers who now account for almost one in four working age people in the UK,” she said.
The researchers examined the roles available to job seekers through the Department for Work and Pension’s Find a Job portal in the month from December to January this year. It found 94,827 new jobs were advertised but only one in 26 adverts had the option of hybrid or remote working (3.2% of the roles were hybrid and 0.6% were fully remote).
A quarter of these roles were available in London and the South East, with fewer opportunities elsewhere in the UK.
“This new evidence clearly tells us that if a job isn’t advertised as hybrid or remote, the vast majority of disabled workers who require access to homeworking won’t even apply,” said Florisson. “This may be non-negotiable for them so they can better manage their health and stay in work.”
The researchers are now calling for urgent policy reforms. These include increasing the availability of remote and hybrid work opportunities, potentially through legislation requiring employers to publish flexible working options in job adverts.
They are also advocating for strengthened support for disabled workers in accessing remote roles, particularly through the Department for Work and Pensions’ Access to Work scheme, which could be improved with better funding and increased awareness.
Further recommendations include overhauling the Disability Confident Scheme and aligning it with the proposed Equality (Race and Disability) Bill, including better tracking of disabled workers’ employment levels and reasonable adjustment rates.
Lancaster University’s Dr Paula Holland, lead investigator in the study, said:
“Employers should consider the needs and preferences of disabled workers when planning and implementing remote and hybrid working models, as workers currently face a lottery as to whether they are appropriately consulted before changes are made. To start to close the disability employment gap, policymakers and employers must commit to the design of inclusive, high-quality jobs that remove barriers for disabled workers.”
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