🔕 Right-to-Disconnect Laws: A Country-by-Country Update for 2026

The right to disconnect — the legal right of employees to not engage with work communications outside their working hours, without retaliation — has gone from "a French curiosity" to mainstream employment law in less than a decade. By the start of 2026, at least 15 countries have codified some version of the right, and the number is growing. For global employers, the patchwork creates real compliance work.

This guide summarizes the current state of right-to-disconnect law by jurisdiction. It is not legal advice; engage local employment counsel for any specific implementation.

France: the original

France codified the right to disconnect in the 2017 El Khomri Law (Article L. 2242-17 of the Labour Code). Employers with 50 or more employees must negotiate or implement a charter specifying the practical arrangements for employees' right to switch off communications outside working hours. The law does not impose specific quiet hours; it requires the employer and works council to define them.

In practice this has meant policies like "no work emails after 8 PM or before 7 AM," delayed-send features in corporate email, and explicit recognition that employees do not need to respond to off-hours messages.

Australia: Fair Work Amendment 2024

Australia introduced a right to disconnect via the Fair Work Amendment (Closing Loopholes No. 2) Act, with the substantive provisions effective August 2024 for non-small-business employers and August 2025 for small business. Employees may refuse to monitor, read, or respond to contact from their employer outside working hours unless the refusal is unreasonable. The Fair Work Commission resolves disputes about reasonableness.

Unlike the French model, Australian law does not prescribe specific quiet hours. It creates an enforceable right that employees can invoke, with the employer needing to justify the contact as reasonable.

Belgium

Belgium's right to disconnect applies to public-sector employees (since 2022) and to private-sector employers with 20 or more employees (since 2023). Larger employers must include the right in collective bargaining or a workplace policy.

Spain

The Spanish Organic Law 3/2018 on Personal Data Protection and Digital Rights includes Article 88, the right to digital disconnection. Employers must develop an internal policy in consultation with employee representatives. Specific quiet hours are not mandated by the statute but are commonly negotiated.

Portugal

Portugal's 2021 reforms introduced a duty of the employer to refrain from contacting employees outside working hours, with limited exceptions for force majeure. Notable for being one of the rare jurisdictions that places the obligation on the employer rather than creating a right for the employee.

Italy

Italian law (Article 19 of Law 81/2017) requires "smart working" agreements to define rest periods and the right to disconnect. Tied specifically to formal remote-work arrangements rather than being a universal right.

Ireland

The Workplace Relations Commission issued a Code of Practice in 2021. Not strictly law but breach of the Code can be considered in unfair-dismissal and other Workplace Relations Commission proceedings. Three core rights: not to routinely work outside normal hours, not to be penalized for refusing such contact, and a duty to respect others' right to disconnect.

Ontario, Canada

Ontario's Employment Standards Act amendment, effective June 2022, requires employers with 25 or more employees to have a written right-to-disconnect policy. The policy must address email, telephone, video, and other communication outside working hours. The statute does not prescribe substantive content beyond requiring that a policy exist.

Other jurisdictions

The list continues to grow. Greece, Slovakia, Luxembourg, and several South American countries have introduced provisions. Several US states (notably New York City and California) have considered right-to-disconnect bills without yet enacting them; the regulatory direction in major US jurisdictions is to leave the question to collective bargaining for now.

What global employers need to do

1. Map your workforce. For each jurisdiction where you employ people, identify whether a right-to-disconnect law applies and what it requires.
2. Layer policy over the strictest applicable jurisdiction. If you have French and US employees on the same team, the right-to-disconnect policy needs to satisfy French requirements. Many global employers find it simpler to apply the strictest policy company-wide.
3. Train managers. Most violations are not malicious; they are managers in low-regulation jurisdictions sending late-night messages to direct reports in high-regulation ones. Education is the single biggest lever.
4. Use technical controls. Delayed-send features, "do not disturb" hours on company chat tools, and explicit working-hours indicators in calendar tools reduce inadvertent breaches.
5. Document exception handling. Genuine emergencies still need to happen. Have a clear, narrow definition of what justifies after-hours contact.

The workforce-analytics angle

Workforce-analytics data is the friend of right-to-disconnect compliance, not its enemy. Aggregate data on after-hours email and chat volume helps employers verify that policy and reality match. Per-employee work-hours data lets HR identify managers whose direct reports are working consistently outside scheduled hours — usually a signal that the manager is implicitly demanding it.

Closing thought

Right-to-disconnect law is one of the cleanest cases where a smart policy and good data work together. The patchwork is real, but the underlying expectation is converging: employees have a right to a private life, and the employer's compliance burden is mostly about clarity and documentation. DeskTrust includes after-hours activity reporting so you can spot policy gaps before they become disputes.