Employers ‘should fund night-time facilities’

One in nine people in the UK now work at night, the highest proportion of the workforce since ONS office for national statistics records began in 2005, and many are precarious gig economy workers.

A new report from the Autonomy think tank, Working nights – municipal strategies for nocturnal workers, calls on public authorities and workers’ organisations to join forces and set up dedicated night funds to support “nocturnal activities and social spaces for night-time wellbeing”. These include night worker centres.

The report sets out that, for example, food delivery riders working at night do not have access to common facilities where they can rest indoors, eat, use toilets, take protection from bad weather, change clothes, store belongings, or charge the phones and bike lights they rely on to take and complete orders.

Night funds, says the report, “should capture part of the profits generated by companies that rely on nightwork for their success”. These include the platforms that organise gig-work and logistics-heavy businesses like supermarkets.

https://autonomy.work/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Working_Nights-2.pdf