On 21 January, the European Parliament (EP) adopted the resolution with recommendations to the Commission on the right to digital disconnect.
The adoption of a resolution in the European Parliament is the expression of the political will of the EP, but does not include any legislation. The EP hopes the resolution inspires the Commission or the Member States to take action on the issue of the adopted resolution.
The resolution was drafted on the basis of numerous findings from research on the ongoing development of digitalisation.
The EP underlines the benefits of digitisation and the appropriate use of digital tools. These are increased flexibility and autonomy, the potential to improve work-life balance, but also disadvantages that lead to a number of ethical, legal and employment challenges. These are, for example, the intensification of work and the expansion of working hours, blurring the boundaries between work and private life.
MEPs see the risk of an increase in an "always-connected" and "always-on" culture, which can have a detrimental effect on workers' fundamental rights and fair working conditions, but also on work-life balance and health and safety. At the same time, they point to the disadvantage of women, the majority of whom have to combine work and care responsibilities. Similarly, the WHO also points to negative effects such as sleep deprivation, emotional exhaustion, anxiety and burnout.
In addition, the recent Eurofound survey showed that the combination of work and care tasks has a strong impact on people's well-being and results in a significant increase in work pressure.
The EP is convinced of the importance of developing a clear framework that promotes personal flexibility while protecting workers' rights. It is about more than the right of workers to switch off. It is about the need for social dialogue and collective agreements on working hours and conditions, the use of ICT equipment, health and safety measures, adequate controls, protection when workers assert their rights, monitoring measures and privacy measures. The EP stresses that the workload and performance standards of teleworkers must be equivalent to those of comparable workers. In this resolution, the EP calls on the Commission to make use of all available Union instruments and to further work on existing legislation in order to develop a coherent legal framework.