In order to reduce stress and burnout of government officials amid the Work From Home culture, the Belgium government has introduced a new ‘ Right to Disconnect’ law wherein the officials can ignore the calls, emails of their bosses outside working hours. With this, Belgium has become the latest in Europe taking steps toward a greater work-life balance.
The Belgium government said that workers must not be disadvantaged by switching off their phones. The law which came into effect on February 1 has allowed 65,000 government officials to make themselves unavailable at the end of a normal working day unless there are “exceptional” reasons for not doing so.
The Belgium government has plans to extend the right to disconnect to private-sector employees as well despite the opposition from some business leaders.
A Belgian minister said that the law was necessary to combat a culture of people feeling they should always be available. He added that with such a law there will be “less stress and burnout, which are the real diseases of today”.
The Belgium government is also planning to a proposal to move to a four-day week of 38 to 40 hours for permanent staff.
Belgium is not the first nation to introduce a right to disconnect. In 2017, France enacted a law that allowed some workers to ignore their devices after working hours. Additionally, Portugal also introduced fines for employers who contact staff after they clocked out and banned them from monitoring employees working from home. However, Germany’s Volkswagen is known to be the trailblazer of worker-friendly law. In 2012, the automaker banned employees from accessing emails after hours in order to avoid burnout.
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