Professor Len Shackleton, IEA Editorial & Research Fellow, was quoted in an op-ed by Ryan Bourne for The Telegraph. The article argued it was not the government’s place to intervene in the labour market and mandate on working arrangements. Instead, it should be left to the employer and employee to work out a mutually beneficial agreement. Although flexible working has become the norm during the pandemic, the government must not make flexible working a condition for employers to abide by.

Len estimated that that around 30 per cent of jobs involve some form of flexible working, with four million people on flexi-time arrangements and 150,000 already in job shares. Len predicted that because companies have invested in software to improve flexible working in the pandemic, this will surely grow further.

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