Law of 6 May 2021, no. 61 converting Decree Law no. 30/2020 recognised that remote workers have the right to disconnect from technological equipment and IT platforms, under any agreements signed by the parties and without prejudice to any agreed periods of availability. The exercise of the right to disconnect, which is necessary to protect the worker’s rest time and health, cannot affect the employment relationship or pay. The law establishing remote working (L. no. 81/2017) requires that the individual agreement between employer and employee must identify “the technical and organisational measures necessary to ensure the worker’s disconnection from technological work equipment.” The law establishes a worker’s right to disconnection, which is necessary to protect the worker’s rest and health and it must necessarily be regulated in the individual agreement. The legislator seems to comply with the Resolution of the European Parliament of last January. The European Commission was invited to draw up a Directive, to which the Member States will have to adapt, that guarantees remote and non-smart workers the right to disconnection.
Other related insights:
On 21 January, the European Parliament approved the resolution containing recommendations to the Commission on the right to disconnection (2019/2181(INL).
This term means – as specified by the Parliament – the “right of workers not to engage in work-related tasks or communications outside working hours by means of digital media, such as phone calls, emails or other messages.”
The document was approved during the emergency. According to Eurofound data, during this period, more than a third of EU workers began to work from home, compared to the five per cent who already worked remotely before the crisis. The change in the way work is carried out and the increasing use of digital tools have led, as stated in the resolution, to the “rise of an “always connected” culture … that can be to the detriment of workers’ fundamental rights.”
The resolution takes as its starting point the absence of specific legislation at EU level on the right of workers to disconnect from digital tools and the consequent need to establish an EU regulatory framework identifying minimum requirements for the exercise of this right.
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