22-Feb-2021
written by: Rana Moustafa
OVERVIEW
With challenging times come changing measures to preserve adaptively the rights and obligations of individuals.
Recently, the work environment faces many challenges across the globe amongst them workers’ health. The WHO declared that more than 300 million individuals suffer from depression due amongst other reasons to work conditions and 38% of the European Union citizens suffer from mental health problems due to work conditions amongst them anxiety, stress, sleeping disorders.
Nowadays, “work from home” is exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and many workers depicted this situation as often putting work-private life balance in jeopardy. In fact, around 27% of the workers according to Euro found communicated that they worked after working hours to respond to work obligations.
Nevertheless, up until 2021 there was no legal framework or resolutions regarding the right to disconnect protecting workers in European Union. That is why the European Union’s (the “EU”) Parliament issued a resolution on 21 January 2021 declaring the right to disconnect that will be adopted in the entire EU and issued recommendations for the Commission and the EU member countries’ governments to start preparing for the directive that will be adopted.
The EU Parliament voted on this new legislative initiative in a plenary session with majority of votes in favor around 472 votes, 124 against. The EU Parliament members called that the right to disconnect should be considered as a “fundamental” right to protect all workers especially the most vulnerable. The Parliament viewed that the right to disconnect is strongly related to EU principle 9 of work-life balance and principle 10 related to healthy, safe, well adapted work environment and data protection principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights.
I) Legal overview
Article 153 of the Treaty on the function of the European Union provides that the EU shall support and complement the activities of the Member States in improving health, safety and equality for workers. The EU charter of fundamental rights states that every worker has the right to working conditions which respect his or her health, safety and dignity. Every worker has the right to limitation of maximum working hours, to daily and weekly rest periods and to an annual period of paid leave.
The right to disconnect voted for in the Parliament completes the before mentioned EU regulations. The right to disconnect is defined in article 2 of the adopted directive as “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.”
The right to disconnect comes as preventive measure against any derogation due to working hours’ irregularities and against the growing expectation that workers should be reachable at any time. This fundamental right as foreseen will help workers disconnect without facing repercussions from their employers.
Beyond the formal and legal recognition of a right to disconnect, the effects of the resolution would impact the EU member countries and different sectors and in companies’ level.
II) Effects of the implementation of the directive
1) Companies
-Many companies are expected to implement efficient working tools that will help registering the contractual working hours. We refer practically to Volkswagen’s internal servers which refrained from sending emails to individual accounts after working hours.
-The companies and employers may be directed to enter into collective agreements whether on national, regional, sectorial scale in order to guarantee the effectiveness of adoption of the right to disconnect for EU workers across the EU.
-Social partners and companies will have to collectively inform and raise awareness to workers of their right to disconnect. Companies will have to abide with respecting workers’ right to disconnect and provide sanctions, compensation for any prejudice caused conformingly with the EU directives 89/391/CEE, 2003/88/CE, (EU) 2019/1152 and (EU) 2019/1158. Otherwise, Companies will be sanctioned by the national laws that will be stipulating compensations for prejudice occurred.
-Implement security and health evaluations and checkups including but not limited to evaluation of mental health of the workers, evaluation of any psychosocial risks related to the right to disconnect
2) EU governments
The Parliament invited all state members and the EU Commission to improve research and data collection in order to evaluate the exact number of employees across the EU who suffers from work mental and physical health problems detected.
We probably will see in the near future a coordinated framework common between at least all EU countries encouraging social partners to exchange best practices. We will see a major change in case law across the EU and on national scale.