The Portuguese parliament drew international attention in November when it passed new labour laws which made it illegal for bosses to contact employees outside working hours.

The timing of introducing such a law is quite important. With the advent of digital technology, the boundary between work and home has undoubtedly shrunk in the last few years. Then, the pandemic has induced a massive increase in the work-from-home culture all over the world.

As a result, the boundary has further been blurred in many ways during the last two years. Thus, this law is seen by many as an essential move to strengthen the conditions for a good work-life balance.

“We have introduced these new labour laws to avoid the blurring of the boundary between the time we spend serving others and family time,” wrote Ana Catarina Mendes, the parliamentary leader of the Portuguese Socialist Party. In a recent article in ‘The Guardian’, she tried to explain why they stopped Portugal’s bosses contacting staff outside work hours: “There should be a boundary between the time when an employer’s authority prevails, and the time when the worker’s autonomy should prevail.”

She believes that this law would help to make Portugal a more egalitarian society. Earlier, some academic studies had confirmed that after-hours email expectations negatively impact employee well-being. In an article entitled ‘Exhausted, but unable to disconnect: the impact of email-related organizational expectations on workfamily balance’, published in the ‘Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings’ in 2016

Liuba Belkin of Lehigh University, William Becker of Virginia Tech, and Samantha A. Conroy of Colorado State University used data collected from a wide variety of industries and organisations and identified email-related expectations as a job stressor along with already established factors such as high workload, interpersonal conflicts, physical environment, or time pressure.

“Email is notoriously known to be the impediment of the recovery process. Its accessibility contributes to experience of work overload since it allows employees to engage in work as if they never left the workspace, and at the same time, inhibits their ability to psychologically detach from work-related issues via continuous connectivity,” wrote the authors.

Thus, if an organization perpetuates the ‘always on’ culture, it may prevent employees from fully disengaging from work eventually leading to chronic stress. Also, another 2016 study published in the journal ‘Work & Stress’ exhibited that always being on call is linked with decreased calmness, mood, and energy levels:

“Non-work hours, during which employees are expected to respond to work issues, constrain employee behavior and cannot be considered leisure time.” Another study by researchers from Northern Illinois University had similar findings.

Portugal is not the first country to make a law like this. While the Portuguese law is implemented amid the once-in-a-century pandemic, it’s not counter-intuitive at all that France became a trendsetter in this context when it introduced such a law in support of the right to disconnect. In fact, back in 2017, much before the ongoing pandemic, France made international headlines with its own ‘right to disconnect law, called the ‘El Khomri’ law, proposed by the then labour minister Myriam El Khomri.

Interestingly, French lawmakers described the law as a necessary move to combat ‘info-obesity’. In fact, recently the majority of lawmakers in the European Parliament voted in favour of putting forward a ‘right to disconnect’ law to implement across the bloc. Italy has incorporated a similar right regarding employees’ obligation to communicate beyond office hours.

And Spain also. In 2018, Petition 1057 called for the introduction of the right to disconnect or as it is called in French ‘Le droit à la déconnexion’ in the labour law of Luxembourg. Lawmakers in the UK also have mooted the idea of giving employees the right to disconnect.

Many German companies, including Volkswagen, have voluntarily arranged that their company servers would automatically shut down outgoing emails between 6 pm and 7 am each day. In 2014, German car and truck maker Daimler took the bold step of introducing software called ‘Mail on Holiday’ that automatically deletes any emails you get while on vacation.

While Europe is leading with examples in this direction, what about other parts of the globe? Across the Atlantic, New York City Council member Rafael Espinal Jr. felt that there are a lot of New Yorkers who don’t know when their workday begins and when it ends because they are all so tied to their phones.

In 2018, Espinal had introduced a bill called the ‘Disconnecting From Work’ bill, which would make it illegal for businesses to require that employees check their email or other electronic communication during non-work hours. What about India? There have been some attempts, at least. In 2019, the Right to Disconnect Bill to give employees the right to not respond to employers’ calls, texts, or emails after office hours, was introduced by NCP MP Supriya Sule.

The Bill proposed that no disciplinary action can be taken if an employee does not respond to work-related calls after working hours. It was, however, a private member’s bill and it was not passed. In fact, no such bill has become an Act in India since 1970.

While reviewing Portugal’s effort, it may of course be noted that not all of the proposed rules, however, were approved by Portuguese lawmakers. For instance, the Portuguese Parliament didn’t pass a proposal to give workers the ‘right to disconnect’ and turn off their work devices at the end of the day.

And, it should be noted that while the ‘right to disconnect’ is gaining momentum in different parts of the world, the dynamics of the boss-worker relationship are complex and it might be getting reshaped in the post pandemic ‘new normal’ set up where millions have already lost their jobs. How easy will it be for the employees to stand strong in support of their rights, even if that is ensured by law?

As the Portuguese lawmaker observed, in an unequal relationship such as that between boss and worker, it is not enough to establish the latter has a ‘right to disconnect’. The employers should be prohibited from contacting workers outside working hours, if you believe that clear boundaries between working time and personal time are essential and should be properly established. A more stringent and complex proposition, indeed.

(The writer is Professor of Statistics, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata)