Quo vadis right to disconnect?
More than a year and a half after it was tabled in the Chamber of Deputies, the bill amending the Labour Code to introduce a provision on the right to disconnect is back in the spotlight.
Largely inspired by an opinion issued by the Economic and Social Committee in 2021, the bill provides for the introduction, within the Labour Code, of a genuine legislative framework around the right to disconnect. A series of amendments to the bill were adopted on 6 April in order to advance the work and speed up the legislative process.
So far, only a ruling by the Superior Court of Justice in 2019 has recognised the existence of an employee's right to disconnect by penalising his employer, who had dismissed him for, among other things, failing to respond and react to his calls and instructions during his rest leave.
With the ever-increasing digitalisation of work tools, the aim of the project is to encourage and even facilitate a better work-life balance.
Like the prevention of bullying in the workplace, the right to disconnect was also provided for in the coalition agreement 2018 - 2023, in which the government stated that it wanted to establish a principle of disconnection that would be implemented by collective agreements or cross-industry agreements, while taking account of the specific characteristics of sectors and companies.
Consequently, when employees use digital tools for professional purposes, a system to ensure that the right to disconnect outside working hours is respected will in future have to be defined at the level of the company or sector concerned.
This new specific regime will have to be defined by means of a collective labour agreement or subordinate agreement. Failing this, the specific arrangements will have to be defined at company level, with due regard for the powers of the staff delegation, if any.
It should be noted that if an employer whose employees use digital tools for professional purposes fails to set up such a right to disconnect scheme, it will be liable to an administrative fine of between €251 and €25,000 imposed by the director of the Labour and Mines Inspectorate.
To be continued...