European social partners to negotiate right to disconnect

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) reached an agreement with European business associations on a work programme for the social dialogue 2022-2024 that should include legally binding measures to regulate telework and institute a right to disconnect on a European level.

The work programme was signed by the leaders of the business associations and ETUC at a signing ceremony on Tuesday (28 June) in Brussels. Among the six defined areas of cooperation for the social dialogue in the coming years are a new agreement on telework, a right to disconnect, and the green transition.

Due to the pandemic, telework has become much more commonplace in Europe. While only 5.4% of the EU workforce reported they would usually work from home in 2019, this number rose to 13.4% in 2021, creating new challenges for workers and employers.

Equal treatment of teleworkers

That is why the social partners agreed to negotiate an update of the 2002 Autonomous Agreement on Telework that would then be implemented via an EU directive.

“It is important that the worker has choice over whether or not they want to telework,” ETUC’s deputy general secretary Esther Lynch told EURACTIV, listing her priorities for the coming negotiation.

Moreover, she stressed that the employers rather than workers should come up with the costs associated with telework, be it for the laptop, the internet connection, or the room heating.

Furthermore, the trade unions will push back against invasive surveillance by the employer. “We want to make sure that employees know when they are being monitored and that, at all times, they can turn the monitoring off,” Lynch said.

Véronique Willems, secretary-general of the SME association SMEUnited, was a little more cautious about her expectations for the negotiations with the trade unions, telling EURACTIV that she expected a fair result that would take into account workers’ interests but also the interests of SMEs.

Towards a right to disconnect?

In their negotiations with business representatives, trade unions also want to ensure that work does not infringe too much on their free time because they are accessible via smartphones and laptops all the time.

This is easier said than done since even if workers are not officially obliged to respond to their emails on a Saturday afternoon, they might feel pressured to do so anyway. Therefore, the trade unions want to institute a right to disconnect for workers.

“For some workplaces, that can sometimes mean that you cannot even be contacted,” Lynch told EURACTIV, arguing that this might be the only way to alleviate the stress and pressure of having to work more than working hours. However, she admitted that this will be one of the “most difficult and most important parts of the negotiations.”

Indeed, chief SME lobbyist Véronique Willems is not a great fan of the right to disconnect, arguing that working relationships in SMEs are special and that working in a small team requires flexibility. For example, in a small company with a team of ten people or less, “it’s very difficult to duck away or hide.”

“Quality jobs” for the green transition

Apart from negotiating a legally binding agreement on telework and the right to disconnect, the social partners also want to devise a framework of actions to tackle the green transition.

“The speed and scale of this transformation in the labour market require the early and effective involvement of the social partners,” the work programme states. It calls on social partners to work together to create “quality jobs” and support workers to adapt to the change “underpinned by appropriate public funding and investments.”

The ETUC’s Lynch stressed the importance of anticipating the change. “We want to be ensured that the companies and industries are anticipating change, and we want trade unions to be involved in that discussion,” she said.

[Edited by Alice Taylor]

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