Insights

Austria doesn’t have specific legislation implementing a right to disconnect comparable to Belgium and as far as can be seen no such legislation is currently planned.

The Austrian Working Time Act does, however, in accordance with the Directive 2003/88/EC, stipulate strict mandatory daily and weekly rest periods during which employees are generally not allowed to work. This indirectly restricts the possibilities to work flexibly round the clock interrupted by breaks at the employee’s will, apart from for ‘managerial employees’ who are excluded from the working time/rest period restrictions.

The question of the point at which individual work-related actions (like reading and quickly answering an e-mail or taking a short call) during a rest period impair the free time of an employee to the extent that this constitutes ‘work’ or ‘working time’ and therefore violates mandatory rest period regulations, is gaining increasing importance and is being discussed by commentators. In practice, many employees at least feel like they are required to read and even respond to work-related e-mails and take short calls outside of working hours. On the other hand, some employers (especially in bigger companies) explicitly order that no e-mails or calls may be answered and there is an obligation to disconnect during certain periods (i.e. on Fridays after 3 p.m.).

In Chile, the right to disconnect is only applicable to employees who provide remote work and can freely decide the distribution of their working schedule, as well as to telework employees who are excluded from working schedule limits.

The right to disconnect should be for at least 12 continuous hours within a 24-hour period. The disconnection time is one of the mandatory clauses that should be duly stipulated in the employment contract.

In contrast to Belgium, local law in Chile establishes specific fines for violations of disconnection time, with the amount varying according to the size of the company and the seriousness of the infraction.

There are no separate legal provisions which give employees the right to disconnect in Denmark. However, there is a maximum number of hours that an employee can be required to work as well as mandatory rest periods an employee must take during the working day and during the week.

Germany has no equivalent to the specific Belgian regulation on the right to disconnect.

There is no obligation in Germany for an employee to be reachable during their free time. However, there is also no specific regulation on the right to disconnect that protects employees.

The working hours act provides for a maximum of eight hours of work on work days (with a possible extension to ten hours). In addition, a daily uninterrupted rest period of at least eleven hours is prescribed. If the employee reads or responds to work-related messages after work, the eleven hours begin to run again.

Similarly, according to German health and safety law, the employer must ensure that the employee can sufficiently recover in their free time as a matter of their psychological well-being (i.e. without being reachable by the employer).

At the collective bargaining level, however, the conclusion of a voluntary works agreement on the right to disconnect is currently possible under German law. Some companies have already implemented this as pioneers (e.g. VW).

Since 2010, when remote work was implemented in domestic legislation, there was no specific legal provision safeguarding the right to disconnect. The only relevant provision was the general requirement for employees to have a minimum of 11 hours of daily rest between shifts. On 3 December 2022 the right to disconnect was established in domestic law for the first time under the Presidential Decree (No. 88/2022). This requires teleworkers to completely abstain from providing work, especially from communicating by e-mail or telephone, during non-working hours and holidays. It also prohibits any form of discrimination against employees who exercise the right to disconnect. Finally, it establishes the existence of a mandatory clause in the contract of employment setting out the terms and conditions for ensuring the worker’s disconnection from digital communication and work tools. This clause shall be agreed between the employer and the employees’ representatives. In the absence of such a clause, the employer is required to define those terms and conditions and notify all employees.

Since April 2021, Ireland has had a Code of Practice on the Right to Disconnect which aims to create a culture of good work-life balance and break bad habits where people feel obliged to respond to messages out of hours. While the Code of Practice is not legally binding, it can be used as evidence against employers in claims for breach of employment rights. As a result, time recording has become more important in sectors where this was not historically commonplace and is particularly important now with the prevalence of remote working arrangements.

Even though they were already obliged to monitor employee working hours, the Code of Practice means that employers in Ireland should ensure they are doing this in a more visible and transparent way. It also highlights employees’ obligations to flag to their employers where they haven’t been able to take the required breaks under working time legislation and that they must co-operate with employers in keeping track of their working time. The Code of Practice also emphasises the responsibility of managers in communicating appropriately in relation to the urgency of tasks. A right to disconnect policy also helps to establish an organisational culture in which the line between work and leisure time is both visibly respected and taken seriously. However, despite the anticipation in the lead up to its introduction, some recent industry surveys would suggest that the measure has had little real impact on working practices generally.

In Italy, the right to disconnect has received legal protection only with reference to so-called ‘smart-working’. Indeed, Italian law provides that the individual smart-working agreement, regulating work performed remotely outside the company premises, must specify the technical and organisational measures necessary to guarantee the disconnection from technological work tools. Furthermore, the agreement must also identify rest periods.

The law of 28 June 2023 introduces the obligation for employers to ensure the enforcement of the right to disconnect, through a collective labour agreement or a subordinate agreement. In the absence of such an agreement, the employer may implement it by any means (after informing and consulting the staff delegation in companies with fewer than 150 employees, or by mutual agreement with the staff delegation in companies with at least 150 employees).

In establishing the right to disconnect, the company must take into account its particular business and industry, and cover, where appropriate, the practical arrangements and technical measures for disconnecting from digital tools, awareness-raising and training measures and compensation arrangements in the event of exceptional derogations from the right to disconnect. This scheme, which ensures respect for the right to disconnect outside the working hours, must ensure compliance with the applicable law or collective agreement governing working hours.

Failure to comply with the obligation to implement a right to disconnect is punishable by an administrative fine of between EUR 251 and EUR 25,000 imposed by the Director of the Labour and Mines Inspectorate (ITM). Such penalties may not be imposed before 2026, to give companies time to take the necessary measures.

In Mexico, the right to disconnect is only recognised in the context of teleworking.  We believe that it should be recognised in general: not only for teleworkers, but also for on-site employees. Employers are obliged to enter into an individual employment agreement that should include details of working time and the right to disconnect, including from digital means of communication. Likewise, employers must prepare a teleworking policy, that should include, among other things, the right to disconnect. Unfortunately, neither the law nor the Mexican official standards provide detailed rules on how the right to disconnect is going to be enforced.

In the Netherlands there is no specific legislation that grants individuals the right to disconnect from work-related communication outside of working hours. However, there are some collective agreements which include such a provision. Currently there is a bill pending in parliament on this topic. The proposed legislation suggests that employers and employees should have a discussion and make arrangements about not being reachable outside of working hours.

In December 2021, Portugal introduced a general duty on employers to refrain from contacting employees outside working hours. This is a general duty imposed on all employers, regardless of their size or area of activity. Failure to comply with this obligation may lead to fines for serious misconduct.

There is no statutory right in Sweden for employees to disconnect and no proposals from the government that this should change. However, it is not common in Sweden that employers regularly try to connect with employees when not at work and expect a response as employers should respect the employees’ private time.

The Turkish Code of Obligations states that the employer is responsible for preserving and respecting the personality of the employee in the employment relationship. However, besides this rule, there are no other specific provisions stipulated in the legislation or any other recommendations in the case law regarding the right to disconnect under Turkish law.

The right to disconnect in Ukraine applies primarily to employees who work remotely or at home. Ukrainian legislation provides that an employee working remotely is guaranteed a period of free time for rest (disconnection period) during which the employee may interrupt communication with the employer, and this is not considered a violation of the terms of the employment agreement or labour discipline. The period of free time for rest (disconnection period) should be determined in the employment agreement on remote work. If an employment agreement on remote work has not been concluded, the working hours established by the company’s rules should be taken into account, and the right to disconnect is granted to the employee during non-working hours, usually from 6 pm to 9 am.

There is no specific sanction provided for failure to provide the employee with the right to disconnect, but the employer may be held liable for general violations of of labour law and may be required to pay a fine of between USD 180 and USD 360 for each such violation.