The rapid development of new technologies is increasing pressure and forcing unlimited working time and growing stress among many workers across Europe.
What do working people do when they get home, or turn away from the computer after a full day’s work? Do they tend to their families or take time for leisure activities? Or are they back online to put in extra hours or anxiously scanning their smartphones for an urgent message and a new task from their employer? Unfortunately, we know the answer to these question, most of us reconnect.
The rapid development of new technologies that permit 24-hour connectivity is increasing pressure and forcing unlimited working time and growing stress among many workers across Europe. That is why the implementation of an EU-wide legislation to guarantee the ‘right to disconnect’ is so urgent.
In June 2022, the European Trade Union Confederation and employers signed a joint Work Programme that included a commitment to reach a legally binding agreement to regulate telework and establish the right to disconnect, to be implemented in the form of a directive. Negotiations continued for 15 months, and the social partners were close to agreement, but in the end the employers’ side blocked the deal in the absence of unanimity on their part.
Now the onus is on the European Commission to put forward a directive. Before last year’s European elections, the old Commission launched the first phase of a social partner consultation and presented its proposals in April 2024. The ETUC welcomed this initiative and responded promptly to the questions it posed. After taking office, the new Commission was due to report on the second phase, and the Commission’s Executive Vice-President for Social Rights, Quality Jobs and Preparedness, Roxana Minzatu, pledged to make this a priority. Trade unions expected to see a new proposal after Christmas – but nothing has appeared, and we are still waiting.
An ambitious directive on telework and the right to disconnect would be a promised legislative initiative that can make a difference in an increasingly digitalised working environment. It is therefore difficult to understand why the Commission appears to be playing for time. This is unacceptable. Over-connectivity is a real problem, affecting our lives here and now. Legislative action that delivers real solution is urgently needed. Urgency is vital.
Like the struggle over a century ago for an eight-hour working day, the right to disconnect is a question of workers’ mental and physical health and safety. Even before COVID-19, stress at work started to reach epidemic proportions. Workers in Europe reported stress, anxiety, and depression as the second most common work-related health problem. In a 2022 post-covid Flash Eurobarometer survey by the European Agency for Health and Safety at Work (EU-OSHA), 46 per cent of respondents complained of severe time pressure or overload of work. Stress and burn-out can lead to depression, family break-ups and even suicide.
Stress at work is a lake fed by many streams, and it is expanding. The COVID-19 pandemic generated an explosion in teleworking. Trade unions recognise that working from home may bring benefits for some people. But it needs rules and regulation. The exponential growth of the digital economy, bringing new work patterns, insecure or zero-hours contracts, platform work, AI digitalisation and meeting platforms like Zoom has been a major factor in promoting 24-hour availability and the resulting pressure on workers. In 2023, EU-OSHA highlighted “permanent availability” as a particular danger to workers’ safety and health. An enforceable right to disconnect is a key instrument in stemming this tide and allowing for a healthy work-life balance.
Eurofound research in November 2023 found that health problems were more common among employees who worked unsocial hours. They had higher levels of anxiety and exhaustion and indicated more often that their health was at risk because of their work. They also reported higher levels of ‘presenteeism’ (putting in long hours of work while physically unfit, and therefore less able to carry out tasks).
In 2024, the European Trade Union Institute identified five risk factors that contribute to depression and mental and physical ill-health, including job strain, job insecurity and long working hours. Digital connectivity means that workers feel under constant pressure to be available and to accept work. An EU working conditions survey showed that people regularly working from home are six times more likely to work in their free time and twice as likely to work 48 hours.
The right to disconnect is especially important for women, who continue to shoulder the bulk of family responsibilities. Women who telework are already more exposed to psychosocial risks, stress and work-related health problems, largely due to the unequal sharing of domestic labour. Telework should not be a substitute for care services or parental leave, when workers must be able to ‘switch off’ and dedicate themselves to their families.
The demand for a legal right to disconnect at EU level is not new. A European Parliament resolution in January 2021 recognised it as a fundamental employee right and called for a directive “that enables those who work digitally to disconnect outside their working hours” and to “establish minimum requirements for remote working and clarify working conditions, hours and rest periods”. The health and safety risks arising from new work trends were already set out in a European Parliament briefing note in 2019.
In recent years, a number of EU member states have introduced some form of regulation. France became the first country to pass a right-to-disconnect law in 2016. In Belgium, one of the four pillars of the Labour Deal focuses on a right to disconnect for employees, with an April 2023 deadline for implementation of the rules. In October last year, the Italian Parliament introduced a draft law focusing on employees’ right to avoid communications from their employer or supervisor outside of regular working hours, ensuring a minimum 12-hour period of uninterrupted rest after the end of a workday. The draft law defines ‘work-related communication’ as any form of contact between employers and employees via phone, email, instant messaging services, or any kind of platforms. The proposal also covers self-employed workers and professionals and proposes fines for non-compliant employers. Portugal introduced legislation in 2021, and initiatives have been launched in Spain, Greece, Luxembourg, Slovenia and Ireland. However, a number of EU member states have taken no action or prefer to leave the issue to collective bargaining arrangements.
Even where the right to disconnect exists in national legislation, differences apply to content, coverage, requirements and implementation. In France, for example, 60% of teleworking employees still did not have a formal right to disconnect in 2021. In Spain, only one in three employees reported that the right to disconnect was recognised in their company.
In Ireland, the 2021 code of practice makes no provision for sanctions in the event of non-compliance, and by the end of that year 14% of employees reported that their employer did not acknowledge the right to disconnect.
EU legislation is urgently needed to ensure that everyone is properly protected. Workers cannot be on call 24/7. The right to disconnect should also include an assessment of staffing levels, workload and working time available. A holistic analysis and regular review would have a positive impact on the health of workers, job satisfaction and productivity. A directive must ensure all workers have an enforceable right to disconnect. It must not limit the scope only to workers performing telework. It should include a legal definition of the right to disconnect that stipulates that workers can switch off their digital devices outside working time and are not obliged to respond to employers’ communications before they are back on duty. Workers must be protected against any penalties for being offline, including discrimination in employment conditions, promotion, or dismissal. The employer should be required to prove that unfair treatment has not taken place.
Enforcement is key, and the directive must provide for sanctions against employers that fail to comply. It should provide for inspections and checks by competent, well-trained authorities with channels for reporting malpractices. The directive needs a strong non-regression and more favourable provision clause.
Finally, the directive must ensure that trade unions and workers’ representatives are fully involved and consulted, able to establish the rules governing the right to disconnect and telework through collective bargaining. Workers who carry out telework have the same rights and protections as others – their status as workers does not change, and they need the facilities to communicate with their trade union representatives.
The digitalisation of work is advancing at breakneck speed. European leaders must face up to the challenges this represents for workers — and quickly. An EU directive on the right to disconnect cannot wait. It is time for the Commission to get going.
Claes-Mikael Ståhl (cmstahl@etuc.org) has been deputy general secretary at the European Trade Union Confederation since September 2021. He deals primarily with social dialogue, trade and standardisation.