With the adoption of the amendment to the Employment Relationships Act (amendment ZDR-1D) in November 2023, the right to disconnect was legally established. This law requires employers to ensure that they do not interfere with an employee’s free time during their daily or weekly rest periods, use of annual leave, or other justified absences from work. The specific obligation and duty of the employer is to implement appropriate measures to ensure that the employee is not and will not be available to the employer during these times, meaning they are disconnected from digital tools and work-related communication. This includes the right not to be informed about work matters via email, phone, or other communication platforms.
Employers can achieve this in various ways, such as:
- Disabling or limiting server access after working hours so employees cannot receive work emails outside of working hours.
- Ensuring that employees leave behind digital devices that enable work communication at the office.
- Enforcing mandatory disconnection of employees during the use of annual leave.
- Clearly defining the times when an employee must be available by phone or email (outside of which the employee is not obligated to be reachable and should not face any retaliatory measures for not responding).
Good practices within the European Union
- Volkswagen implemented a policy where, 30 minutes after the end of an employee’s shift, their email servers are shut down and restarted 30 minutes before the start of the next shift. This move prevents employees from accessing work emails outside of working hours.
- Daimler introduced a unique “Vacation Mail” feature, allowing employees to set an automatic email response during their vacation that deletes incoming emails and informs the sender of the deletion.
- AXA France introduced a policy that limits work-related emails and calls outside of regular working hours. They use an email management system that ensures employees do not receive work emails between 8:00 PM and 7:00 AM and on weekends.
- BMW issued guidelines encouraging employees to respect their right to disconnect and the right of their colleagues to do the same. The company also uses technical measures to prevent the sending of work-related messages outside of working hours.
Employers must implement appropriate measures regarding the right to disconnect by November 16, 2024. Failure to comply may result in a financial penalty, with fines ranging from 1,500 to 4,000 euros.
Source: gov.si
