Almost a year to the day, television viewers tuning in to the general election count were met with scenes of angry voters who, having failed to cross the polling station threshold before 10pm despite patiently queuing, were turned away. Just over 1,200 people at 27 polling places in 16 constituencies lost their vote that night. The Electoral Commission held up its hands in a report published two weeks later, admitting administrators had failed to follow guidelines. But no one asked why so many people had arrived so late. After all, hadn't they had all day to vote?

In the UK, elections are held on working weekdays and no legislation exists to allow employees to take time off work to vote. UK workers spend an average six and a half hours working each day. Add a lunch hour and a couple of hours travel time, and between nine and 10 hours of a person's day are committed to their employer. Last year, as on this Thursday's local elections and referendum on AV, polling stations across the country will be open for 15 hours from 7am until 10pm. Effectively, this means the UK's 29.23 million employed people must be squeezed through polling station doors within a five-hour window.

Of course, everybody has different contracted hours, but it's not difficult to see voting would be improved by more flexible workplace practices. Not only would this help ensure everyone who wanted to vote could, but it might also boost numbers. The turnout at last year's general election was 65.1% – Thursday's is expected to be much lower.

In the US, the situation is different. Rules vary from state to state, but only 21 out of the 50 do not have a state law guaranteeing time off to vote. Others not only offer time off, but also paid leave. This avoids the pre- and post-work crush, and if it can be administered in the US, it must be possible to implement here.

But despite the evidence, the Electoral Commission denies that work hours obstruct voting. Commenting on last year's queues, a spokesman said that nine-to-five workers were not to blame. He described, for example, groups of students in Sheffield arriving together at polling stations who wanted to vote at the same time (it seems students are always to blame). He advised employees to speak to line managers if they need time off. But not all bosses are politically engaged, and in times when many people's jobs are at risk, some would rather sacrifice their vote than miss out on pay.

Of course, postal and proxy votes are available alternatives, but both require foreplanning. It's too late to set these up within the week before election day. Moreover, the administration required to run these seems a greater burden on local authorities than if people were simply able to organise time off work individually.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has never researched the issue of leave for voting purposes. It advocates flexibility among line managers and, when questioned about time off for voting, a spokesperson suggested employers let workers take longer lunch breaks to avoid post-work queues. But this approach also depends upon having an understanding employer, and without an established national policy, the employee can only argue upon will, not right.

And yet, with the exception of most prisoners and some people with severe mental illness, everyone has a right to vote. The human rights charity Liberty was so appalled by last year's errors that it collected evidence from voters for the Electoral Commission. At the time, its director, Shami Chakrabarti, said turning voters away from polling stations was "unworthy of a mature democracy like ours". Yet in our mature democracy, it seems we cannot organise legislation to allow people the freedom, as well as the right, to vote.

This year, reforms have been introduced following 2010's mistakes. New Electoral Commission rules state that no polling station should serve more than 2,500 people, opening hours will be clearly published on polling cards and polling stations will need to provide enough ballot papers for a 100% turnout.

But despite these changes, this week there will still be many potential voters stuck behind a till or desk unable to have their say. It's ironic that, while Thursday's referendum seeks to establish a fairer system of voting, this serious electoral system flaw goes unaddressed. Queues are not a measure of success, and without legislation giving workers the right to take time off work to vote, the system will never be fair.