If anything can be said to be trendy in the world of employment law, it is probably the “right to disconnect”.
France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Luxembourg, Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Costa Rica and Thailand have all brought in new rules over the past six years which, broadly speaking, give employees the right to disconnect from work technology out of hours. If it wins the next election, the UK’s Labour party has said it will introduce a right to disconnect too, “learning from countries where it has been introduced successfully”.
It’s easy to see why the idea appeals to politicians. It makes them seem forward-thinking — that they are on top of the changing world of work and have something to say about it. It also speaks to a real unease that many people feel about the dissolving boundaries between work and life.