The UK wants to give workers the ‘right to disconnect’. What is it?

The UK could become the latest country to allow workers the right to ignore emails during personal hours, but parts of Europe are already well ahead.

Workers in the United Kingdom can soon ignore work-related emails and phone calls during out-of-office hours. 
It comes after the new Labour government’s election campaign pledge for the “right to switch off,” which allows workers to disconnect from work outside of hours and refuse extra work during weekends. 
But the “right to switch off” is not a new concept and has already been embraced by several European countries. Here’s how some of them have implemented it.
The European Union (EU) defines the right to disconnect as “a worker’s right to be able to disengage from work and refrain from engaging in work-related electronic communications, such as emails or other messages, during non-work hours”.
But it is not written in EU law. The European Parliament wants to change that, and on January 21, 2021, called on the Commission to come up with a law allowing employees to disconnect from work during non-work hours without consequences and setting minimum standards for remote work.
The “right to switch off” has become increasingly important since the COVID-19 pandemic made working from home (WFH) increasingly prevalent. But there is concern that home life becomes a 24-hour office and increases working out of hours.
The European Parliament said that interruptions to non-working time and the extension of working hours can increase the risk of unremunerated overtime, can harm health, work-life balance and rest from work.
As a response, the Commission in April 2024 launched the first-phase consultation of European social partners to gather their views on the possible direction of EU action on ensuring fair telework and the right to disconnect.
France is seen as the pioneer of the “right to switch off”. The country passed legislation in 2016 that allows employees to switch off their phones outside of working hours. 
Companies with more than 50 employees are obliged to draw up a “charter of good conduct” and set specific hours when staff cannot send or receive emails.
Firms that do not follow the rules can face a potential €3,750 fine and up to one year in prison.
Belgium is one of the most recent countries to pass a “right to switch off” law, having done so in February 2022. It was originally just for the country’s civil servants but in 2023 it changed to apply to companies with more than 20 employees. 
However, while there is a law, there are no sanctions if companies do not respect it. And jobs in emergency services are exempt. 
Remote workers have the right to digitally disconnect outside their working hours.
The employer must also draw up an internal policy for the right to disconnect and provide training for staff on the reasonable use of technological tools. 
Portugal calls its law the “right to rest”, which it introduced in 2021. 
Companies with more than 10 employees could face fines if they contact employees outside their contracted hours. But the employee can be contacted by the employer in cases of force majeure. However, the misuse of this exception can be prosecuted as a serious labour offence. 
In Italy, the right to disconnect falls under the so-called “smart-working” statutory law.
The legislation requires that each telework agreement must detail the specific technical and organisational steps needed to ensure the employee can fully disengage from work-related electronic devices. The agreement must also identify rest periods.
The “right to disconnect” was established in Greek law in 2022.
This means that remote workers must completely abstain from providing work, especially when communicating by e-mail or telephone, during non-working hours and holidays.
The law also prohibits discrimination against employees who exercise the right to disconnect.