Disconnection: is it already a right?
For some time now, the right to disconnect has been a talking point: it is an issue which has emerged over the last few years, due to the excessive amount of time that workers spend in front of technological devices such as PC’s, smartphones or tablets.
The real problem lies in the fact that the worker, issued with, for example, a company phone, experiences a constant state of stress due to hyper-vigilance. What will happen if he doesn’t reply to that email received at 10pm on Saturday night? Will it be a mere a ticking-off or something much worse, even dismissal?
Of course, in order to understand how to behave in his specific situation, the employee must be familiar with company rules regarding the devices with which he has been issued and the right to disconnect. This is for the simple reason that, depending on his role in the company, his obligations may be totally different.
Medical and paramedical personnel for example, already have an ‘exemption’ clause in their contracts which obliges them to be reachable even outside their normal shifts. However, this does not apply to all workers.
The first nation to take steps towards a right to disconnect was France, when in 2015, it decided that workers should no longer be expected to respond to emails or phone calls in the evening or during weekends (a rule which came into effect on January 1st 2016, and included in article 55 of the Loi Travail).
In Germany, companies like Volkswagen have introduced rules governing this issue on their own initiative, such as that no business communications will be allowed between 6.15pm and 7am the following morning, while in the UK, some businesses have introduced a half-day each month when no email may be sent or received.
Also in Italy the right to disconnect has been introduced into legislation, and is included in article 3, comma 7 of draft legislation 2229 relating to mobile working and draft legislation number 66/2003 regarding working hours.
These different regulations all share a common objective: to allow employees issued with company devices to be able to disconnect during their free time, without having to continually respond to emails, messages or calls.
However, current regulations as they stand do not seem to fully satisfy the needs of businesses, nor of employees. That is the opinion of the employment lawyer Francesco Rotondi.
According to him in fact, in the current laws, there is a tendency to refer to the worker’s right to disconnect without specifying when his obligation to connect should be. In any case, before establishing the details of disconnection, the entire professional role and the terms on which it should be carried out need to be clarified.
Furthermore, the lawyer points out that while in the past, office workers were focused on their duties throughout the working day, today with the introduction of smart working, this is no longer the case because mobile workers may be distracted by factors such as:
- Calls
- Private messages
- Social Networks.
In his opinion, therefore, as well as discussing the right to disconnect in order to give employees the free time they deserve, the company’s rights regarding mobile workers and safeguards to protect companies from any negligence on their part should also be discussed.
The situation then, remains rather chaotic, but to make it clearer and fairer for both sides (companies and workers), some specific guidelines are required in order to define the roles, rights and duties of each individual fairly. So let us wait and see if the regulations due to come into force in Italy will succeed in meeting the needs of both parties effectively.
Translated by Joanne Beckwith
