Employees should not be obliged to respond to work calls or emails, or engage in any work-related activity outside of contracted hours, the Financial Services Union (FSU) has said.

A report from the trade union, the ‘Impact of Technology on Employees’, found that only 7.4pc of those working in the financial services industry felt their employer had engaged in some effort to restrict or discourage employees over use of technology for work purposes.

The union called on the Government to introduce legislation on the right to disconnect from work, “which would compel employers not to abuse contractual working hours by overuse of technology.”
Similar legislation is already in place in a number of European countries including France, Italy, and Spain.

Gareth Murphy, head of industrial relations and campaigns at the FSU, said: “There is a mental health endemic sweeping the world of work and work related stress is a key driver of this.

One element of work related stress is out of hours work and the ‘always on’ culture of many work places.”

Elsewhere, three in four financial service staff believes at least part of their tasks will become automated in the next ten years, according to the report. Of these, 38pc felt their role would be automated “to a significant extent.”

It appears that business owners are not doing enough to prepare staff for changes in technology, with just over one in three people surveyed indicating that their employer was not providing sufficient training and development to help them feel prepared for the impact of technology on their role.

The report, which surveyed almost 2,000 people, made several recommendations for employers, including that they pay more attention to upskilling of workers, and that they ensure measures are in place to prevent the overuse of technology.

In addition, it calls for collective bargaining at workplace level to address the challenges of workplace technology including the impact of this on staff.

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