Employees have the “right to disconnect”: the boss is not allowed to contact civil servants after hours

The right to severance consists of two principles. First, from then on, the Federal Official may be “contacted only outside normal business hours in exceptional and unforeseen circumstances, and where action is required which cannot wait until the next period of business.”

The second clause states that a federal official “will not suffer any harm if he does not answer the phone or read work-related messages outside normal business hours.”

According to de Sutter, it was necessary to legislate the right to fire approximately 65,000 federal civil servants “in the fight against excessive work stress and burnout.”

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ACV is talking about an important step forward, although there is also skepticism. “In exceptional cases, the manager can still call you after office hours. But what is the exception? We would have liked to see that more specific. Now it depends on what your manager understands through this, which will undoubtedly lead to a discussion,” he says. Johan Leibniz of ACV General Services.

The socialist government union ACOD is less important. Federal Secretary Tony Six asserts: “In these trying times, this right to disconnect is absolutely essential.” “We also hope it will inspire companies and other sectors to follow the same path.”