Switching off

A new code of practice has been introduced in Ireland to give employees a right to disconnect from work-related matters outside of their normal working hours, giving them a better work-life balance, explains The HR Company’s Linda Ward

The Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Leo Varadkar has introduced in a new code of practice in Ireland, outlining employees’ ‘right to disconnect’. This refers to an employee’s right to be able to disengage from work, and refrain from engaging in work-related electronic communications, such as emails, telephone calls or other messages, outside of their normal working hours.

The code applies to all types of employment, and will help employees, no matter what their job is, to strike a better work-life balance and switch off from work outside of their normal working hours, according to the Tánaiste.

There are three main elements to this code of practice:

■ The right of an employee to not routinely perform work outside normal working hours.

■ The right to not be penalised for refusing to attend to work matters outside of normal working hours.

■ The duty to respect another person's right to disconnect.

Employers' responsibilities 

While the code of practice has not brought in any new requirements for employers, it does consolidate many of the acts that contributed to a de facto right to disconnect, which has existed up to this point. The right to disconnect places the following responsibilities on the employer, which are linked with existing legislation:

■ Providing detailed information to employees on their working time – Terms of Employment Act 1994-2014.

■ Ensuring employees are aware of what their normal working hours are reasonably expected to be, both daily and weekly – Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2018.

■ Ensuring employees take their rest periods – Organisation of Working Time Act 1997.

■ Ensuring a safe workplace, including reviewing their risk assessment and, where necessary, their safety statement in line with the Safety, Health, Welfare at Work Act 2005 (SHWWA), and taking account of their obligations under section 8(2)(b) of the SHWWA 2005, which extends to ‘managing and conducting work activities in such a way as to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, any improper conduct or behaviour likely to put the safety, health and welfare at work of his or her employees at risk’.

■ Not penalising an employee for acting in compliance with any relevant provision or performing any duty or exercising any right under section 27 of SHWWA 2005.

Employees' responsibilities 

The right to disconnect also places the following responsibilities on the employee:

■ Ensuring that they manage their own working time – section 13(1)(a) of the SHWWA places an obligation on an employee, while at work, to take reasonable care to protect their safety, health and welfare and the health and safety of co-workers.

■ Cooperating fully with any appropriate mechanism utilised by an employer to record working time, including when working remotely.

■ Being mindful of their colleagues’, customers’/clients’ and all other people’s right to disconnect.

■ Notifying the employer in writing of any statutory rest period or break to which they are entitled to, and were not able to avail of, on a particular occasion, and the reason for not availing of it.

■ Being conscious of their work pattern and work-related wellbeing, and taking remedial action if necessary.

Flexibility in the code of practice 

The code of practice suggests that a company’s right to disconnect policy should allow for ‘occasional legitimate situations’ in which it is necessary to contact employees outside of their normal working hours. The policy should also recognise that there may be business or operational needs that require some out-of-hours work by employees. 

For more information contact business development manager Linda Ward on tel: 01 291 1877 or email: linda.ward@thehrcompany.ie.