Over 65,000 civil servants in Belgium can now legally disconnect themselves from their work after their due working hours. In a historic move, the Belgium government has passed a law, which allows federal workers of Belgium to disconnect themselves from their work, unless there’s an exceptional situation.

Giving importance to its employees’ mental health, the government of Belgium has now enforced a ‘Right to Disconnect’ law. Petra De Sutter, the Belgian minister for public administration, said that the law has been enforced to combat a culture of people feeling they need to be available for work all the time. Belgium is not the first country to introduce a law like this which emphasises and encourages a healthy work-life balance.

France was the first country to introduce such a bill, and was followed by Italy, Germany and Philippines. More and more countries are now adopting measures and legislatures to ensure the wellbeing of their employees.

What is the Right to Disconnect?

Right to Disconnect is a law, which allows the employees to disconnect themselves from work post their normal working hours. Which means, they are not liable for attending work related calls, reply to emails or any other form of contact from work. However, in exceptional cases they can always be expected to remain connected. 

Similar legislations have been debated all around the world with Europe being at the forefront of this debate. France was the first country among the lot to enact a similar law ‘El-Khomri’. While the law is aimed at protecting the workers from exploitation, and to maintain a good work-life balance, it is being opposed by private enterprises. Petra De Sutter, the Belgian minister for Public Administration said that without this ‘Right to Disconnect’, “The result will be stress and burnout and this is the real disease of today.”

Even some organisations like Volkswagen and Daimler have put in place a ‘Right to Disconnect’ policy in place for workers who want to disconnect from work after work hours. In fact, the European Parliament last year proposed an EU wide law that would protect workers who wished to disconnect. “Now is the moment to stand by their side and give them what they deserve: the right to disconnect,” said Member of the European Parliament Alex Agius Saliba, who also drove the vote. Italy and Spain too have passed similar laws, the debates are gaining momentum in the UK and the USA too.

Right to Disconnect in India

In 2019, The Right to Disconnect Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha by NCP MP Supriya Sule. The Bill proposed that no disciplinary action can be taken if an employee does not respond to work-related calls after working hours. The Bill could not be passed as it was a private member’s bill, and no such bill has become an Act in India since 1970.

Is The Law Really Necessary?

With the advent of the pandemic, the work culture has been completely revolutionised. Working from home has its own perks as one can work in the comfort and luxury of their home, but at the same time, it has resulted in blurring the lines between personal space and work life. The work-life balance according to several researches is directly linked to your productivity. That is why it is really important to set clear boundaries between the two. A study also found out that 82% of Indians would now prefer working from home, and to protect them from exploitation at the workplace and to avoid the cases of burnout, anxiety, excessive pressure, it is important that we embrace a culture that does away with the ‘need to be available all the time’.

At the same time, however, such a legislation also raises some questions on its practicality as the ‘Right to Disconnect’ cannot be enforced on every sector. Imagine ambulance drivers, doctors, nurses, compounders getting disconnected after their work hours. Or imagine our soldiers, police personnel, fire brigade getting disconnected after their due work hours. Such a system would be impractical for fields associated with emergency situations. Moreover, what will happen in a case where the employee tries to reach their employer post their working hours, would they be penalised too? 

While ‘Right to Disconnect’ is a strong need of the hour, the way it will be implemented needs solid questioning and scrutiny from all the parties involved. France, where a similar law was implemented years back, is still struggling to curb the loopholes created by the law in the system.

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This article is written by Harsh Paliwal, who is student of Kirori Mal College, Delhi University.