Right to disconnect: what is provided for, what is not

The right to disconnect shall aim at:

• ensure compliance with rest and leave periods;
• ensuring a balance between work and personal and family life;
• protect the health of employees.

The Labor Code does not define the modalities for the exercise of the right to disconnection and stipulates that these must be determined at company level, through an employer-employee agreement, in the framework of the annual negotiation on quality of life at work and on the establishment by the company of mechanisms for regulating the use of digital tools. Such negotiations must be initiated annually (or at least once every four years if a collective agreement on the periodicity of compulsory negotiations has been concluded) in companies where one or more trade union sections of representative organizations are formed. These are generally companies with more than 50 employees.

In the absence of an agreement, particularly in companies with more than 11 employees, the employer shall draw up a

charter

, after consulting the Social and Economic Committee. This charter sets out the modalities for the exercise of the right to disconnect. It also provides for the implementation of training and awareness-raising activities on the reasonable use of digital tools for employees, managers and managers.

Practical arrangements may include, for example:

• instructions for not answering emails or calls on your mobile phone;
• off-hours computer server standby devices;
• Enable absence and redirection messaging.
• the establishment of fixed working hours for teleworkers;
• an automatic signature indicating that an immediate response is not required.