Guest blog: 'Lockdown's legacy will mean more home working, but we must help workers who can't homework too - By Roy Rickhuss - Gen Secretary of Community & Mike Clancy - Gen Secretary of Prospect

On this year’s annual Work from Home Day, there are more people working from home than ever. But of course, it is happening in the hardest of circumstances.  

While it may be a day to note that fact, it's not the time to celebrate it.   

Many people who can work from home have felt the benefit of continued employment. We know many other workers have lost their jobs or been furloughed on reduced pay.

Working from home can bring its own challenges at the moment – balancing work and home life; getting to grips with new technologies and new ways of working; or having to look after your children and try to get some home-schooling done.

Meanwhile, others have continued travelling to work in essential roles on the frontline. They are keeping the rest of us safe and supplied, powered and connected, cared for and fed. And they have put their own health on the line to look after us all.  

Both our unions have members who can work from home, and others who cannot. For those who can, they are likely to continue home-working for a long time yet. For those who can't, the future may be uncertain, or in some cases bleak.

Once the pandemic is fully over, managers are likely to be more receptive to home working requests where it’s an option. And politicians are likely to be more supportive of home-working rights. This crisis has proven what is possible.  

This will be progress. But it will be hard to celebrate it unless we see progress for other workers too.

Today, we encourage those able to work from home to show solidarity with those who can’t. If you have a secure job you can do from home, and a decent wage, think of those who leave home each day.    

Think about the people who keep those deliveries coming to your door, or the warehouse staff who pack them. The workers manufacturing the products we still need. The people securing our energy supply and making sure we have an internet connection.

Remember those on the frontline of public service – in our hospitals, our prisons, our care homes. The people who protect our lives and those of our relatives. They cannot take their work home. And too many of them have been underpaid and undervalued for too long.  

Let’s make a promise today to those workers who are less fortunate. We will stand together in solidarity with you. We will demand a new deal for you, with safe workplaces, fair pay, job security and dignity at work.  

As much as we yearn for more normal lives again, the old normal was not good enough. The new normal must be better for everyone.