Syllabus: GS2/Polity
Context
- A private member bill “Right to Disconnect Bill, 2025”, reintroduced in the Lok Sabha.
What is Right to Disconnect?
- The Right to Disconnect refers to an employee’s right to not engage in work-related communications—such as calls, emails, or messages—outside official working hours.
- It aims to protect workers from excessive digital connectivity and ensure a healthy work–life balance.
Key Features of the Bill
- The draft legislation proposes giving workers the legal right to ignore official communication outside designated working hours without facing disciplinary action.
The Bill mandates following Rights:
- Right to refuse after-hours calls, messages and emails without repercussions.
- Setting up an Employees’ Welfare Authority to implement and monitor the right to disconnect.
- A national baseline study to assess digital communication burdens on employees outside work hours.
- Mandatory negotiations between companies with more than 10 workers and employees/unions to frame work rules performed beyond office hours, which would qualify for overtime at normal wages.
- Counselling services and digital detox centres to be established in coordination with the government.
- Penalties for companies that violate the provisions, up to 1% of their total employee remuneration.
| Do You Know? – A Private Member’s Bill is a proposal introduced by MPs who are not ministers. – Parliament debates these only on Fridays, and they are rarely enacted. – Since Independence, just 14 Private Members’ Bills have become law, with the most recent passed in 1970. |
Countries Having the Law
- Australia recently enacted the laws for the right to disconnect in 2024.
- By enacting this law, Australia joined about two dozen other countries, mainly in Europe and Latin America, that have similar regulations.
- France was one of the pioneers in implementing its right to disconnect in 2017.
Status in India
- India does not have specific laws recognising the right to disconnect from work.
- Article 38 of the Constitution mandates that “the State shall strive to promote the welfare of the people”.
- Article 39(e) of the Directive Principles of State Policy directs the state to direct its policy towards securing the strength and health of its workers.
Source: IE
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