Right to Disconnect Bill 2025

Right to Disconnect Bill 2025

Why in News?

Recently, the Right to Disconnect Bill, 2025 was introduced in the Lok Sabha, highlighting the growing need to protect employees’ personal time. The Bill was brought by the NCP MP to give workers a legal right to disconnect after office hours.

Provisions of the Right to Disconnect Bill, 2025

• Scope of the Right: The Bill grants every employee the legal right to disconnect from work related calls, messages and emails after official work hours and on holidays. The Bill covers both remote work and office work.
• Obligation on Employers: The Bill requires every employer to adopt clear written policies on after hours communication. The policy must state designated work hours methods of permitted contact and protocols for emergencies. The policy must be communicated to all employees.
• Protection from Adverse Action: The Bill forbids employers from taking disciplinary action against any employee who refuses to respond to work communications outside set hours. The Bill makes refusal to respond outside hours a protected action. The protection covers promotion appraisal and termination related decisions.
• Employees’ Welfare Authority: The Bill proposes the formation of an Employees’ Welfare Authority. The Authority must receive complaints, monitor employer compliance and issue remedial orders. The Authority must also publish annual compliance reports.
• Penalties and Remedies: The Bill prescribes financial penalties for non compliance. The Bill suggests a penalty of one percent of total remuneration for each instance of contravention in certain cases. The penalty aims to create a deterrent for routine after hours contact.
• Exceptions and Emergency Contact: The Bill allows employers to contact employees outside hours in a genuine emergency. The Bill defines emergency as matters that involve imminent risk to life property or public safety. The Bill requires employers to document each emergency contact and its justification.
• Reporting and Record Keeping: The Bill mandates that employers maintain logs of after hours contacts. The logs must record date time, reason and consent status. The logs must be available for inspection by the Authority.
• Overtime Compensation: If employees choose to work beyond official hours, they must receive overtime pay at standard rates.
• Mental Health Focus: It calls for counseling and digital detox centers to combat stress, burnout, and cognitive overload (telepressure, info-obesity) linked to constant connectivity.

Reasons Behind the Right to Disconnect Bill, 2025

• Rising Mental Health Burden: Chronic work stress harms mental health. The World Health Organization found that burn-out results from unmanaged workplace stress and noted that 15% of working-age adults had a mental disorder in 2019. The WHO also estimated that depression and anxiety cause an annual loss of 12 billion working days and cost the global economy about US$1 trillion in lost productivity.
• Pervasive Always-on Culture: Workers now use mobile phones and email at all hours. Surveys show that a large majority of remote and hybrid workers check messages outside work time. An India survey in 2024 found over 90% of employees said they receive work contacts outside official hours. This constant connectivity erodes rest time and creates pressure to respond. 
• Poorer Sleep and Health: Studies connect late work contact to sleep loss and higher stress. Sleep deprivation raises risks for chronic disease and reduces day time functioning. Research reviews from 2022–2025 show rising workplace mental health complaints in India and beyond. These health links strengthen the argument for a statutory right that lets employees stop work communications after hours
• Policy Gap: India has a significant policy gap in legally protecting the Right to Disconnect, lacking uniform statutory rights despite constitutional provisions for worker welfare (Articles 38, 39(e)) and growing calls for laws against burnout from digital work. India lacks dedicated legislation for the Right to Disconnect, unlike countries like France, Portugal, and Spain.

Global Practices on the Right to Disconnect

• France: France adopted a legal right to disconnect that took effect from January 1, 2017. The law requires companies with 50 or more employees to negotiate rules on after-hours contact. Companies must create written policies to protect rest time and vacations. The law aims to reduce email pressure and protect workers’ personal time. Implementation relied mainly on company level agreements rather than heavy fines.
• Spain: Spain established the right to disconnect in national law beginning in 2018. The rule appears in the Organic Law 3/2018 on digital rights and it covers remote workers. Spain reinforced the right in 2020 through a Royal Decree on remote work that clarified employer obligations on contact and tools. The law requires employers to set clear protocols.
• Argentina: Argentina included a right to disconnect for remote workers in its telework regulations that started applying in 2021. The rule bars penalties for not replying outside normal hours and requires employers to respect offline time. These moves respond to data showing increased after-hours contact during the pandemic.
• Portugal: Portugal amended its telework framework with Law 83/2021 which entered into force on January 1, 2022. The law labels the duty as the absence of contact during rest periods. Employers must prepare internal rules and respect the rights of remote staff. The law aims to protect mental health and work–life balance.
• Belgium: Belgium introduced a statutory right to disconnect via its 2022 Labour Deal. The Belgian framework requires companies to negotiate digital disconnection measures through collective bargaining or workplace agreements. The law aims to safeguard rest periods and to give workers clear boundaries on digital tools. 

Implementation Challenges 

• “Emergency” vs. “Urgent“: The bill struggles to define what constitutes a genuine emergency requiring after-hours contact versus routine work, blurring the lines for employees.
• Varying Work Hours: Establishing standard working hours is difficult as industries like IT (long hours) and healthcare/emergency services (24/7) have different needs, making uniform rules impractical.
• Startup Culture: Fast-paced startups often expect extra effort, conflicting with disconnect principles. Managing across time zones makes consistent boundary enforcement challenging.
• Monitoring & Penalties: Effective monitoring and manpower for district committees to verify claims and apply penalties are major hurdles.
• Fear of Retaliation: Employees might fear subtle informal retaliation (like missed promotions) despite legal protections, hindering reporting.
• Bill’s Status: As a Private Member’s Bill, its passage into law is difficult, although it serves to highlight the issue.