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> The right to disconnect refers to a worker’s right to be able to disengage from work and refrain from engaging in work-related electronic communications, such

> The right to disconnect refers to a worker’s right to be able to disengage from work and refrain from engaging in work-related electronic communications, such as emails or other messages, during non-work hours.[1] What does that even mean? Is the EU also going to come out with the "Right to breathe" and the "Right to go to the bathroom when you need to"? I'm really frustrated with how the term "right" has been watered down. Rights used to be innate freedoms of the utmost importance, something worth dying for. Now it's just shorthand for some benefit the government provides, or something that the government allows you to do (often with lots of stipulations). Rights are no longer something innate to all humans, they are something that the government gives to you when it wants. [1]https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/observatories/eurwork/industrial-relations-dictionary/right-to-disconnect https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/observatories/eurwork/indust...

troughway 6y ago
>What does that even mean? Is the EU also going to come out with the "Right to breathe" and the "Right to go to the bathroom when you need to"? Have you seen amazon's warehouse work conditions?
- 0xfaded 6y ago
  Every regulation like this is a band-aid, and more band-aids will just make the EU even more quintessentially the EU. If the governance focused on restoring negotiating power to workers, you wouldn't need to write to your MP to go to the toilet.
  - yladiz 6y ago
    Are you saying I should have to negotiate the number of toilet breaks I get?
  - chmod775 6y ago
    >If the governance focused on restoring negotiating power to workers The right for workers to form a union is also a worker's right worth protecting. But this is not a workable solution for every single employment relationship.
- cdirkx 6y ago
  Th right to breathe seems like something worth dying for.
  - jodrellblank 6y ago
    That basically happened: > The Clean Air Act 1956 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom enacted principally in response to London's Great Smog of 1952 > When the "Great Smog" fell over the city in December 1952 the effects were unprecedented: More than 4,000 people are thought to have died in the immediate aftermath,[4] raising public concern, with fog so thick it stopped trains, cars, and public events.[5] A further 8,000 died in following weeks and months. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_Air_Act_1956 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_Air_Act_1956
- dahfizz 6y ago
  Yes, some people's work conditions are very bad and something needs to be done about that. That's beside the point. If you need to ask the government to give you the right to use the bathroom, or to give you the right to not check your email, you've already lost.
  - WJW 6y ago
    That is the point though. Some of these people have indeed "already lost" to the companies employing them and need assistance from a government or other powerful organisation to bring back some balance to that relationship.
  - user-the-name 6y ago
    What? That makes no sense. This is the exact reason you even have a government, to protect your rights.
  - dmitriid 6y ago
    So, your proposal is? Leave everything as is and change nothing?
  - pjc50 6y ago
    Well, yes, you've already lost because your employer is taking that away from you?
flohofwoe 6y ago
It's called "Worker's Rights" after all: https://globalnaps.org/issue/workers-rights/ https://globalnaps.org/issue/workers-rights/ I'd put that under "Safe and healthy working conditions" and "reasonable limitation of working hours".
CommanderData 6y ago
Rights aren't a thing until done by law. Otherwise you are at mercy of company policy or whims of your employer.
- blonde_ocean 6y ago
  From a US Constitutional perspective, rights are inherent, and the Bill of Rights protects citizens from laws that infringe on those rights. Rights are not given by the government via laws, they are inherent protections from invasive laws set by government.
  - kube-system 6y ago
    That concept is called 'natural rights', and it wasn't invented by the US constitution. That document is just one of the more notable formal recognitions of natural rights in modern times.
- kube-system 6y ago
  Natural and human rights exist too, and they are often a bar by which we judge legal rights.
user-the-name 6y ago
The right to not work all the time is most definitely an innate freedom of utmost importance, sitting directly on a line throughout history in the fight for worker's rights.
exDM69 6y ago
It means that if your contract is for 37.5 hours per week, you don't need to do email and be available on im outside of your daily 7.5 work hours. Being on call needs to be negotiated separately.
trisiak 6y ago
> Is the EU also going to come out with the "Right to breathe" and the "Right to go to the bathroom when you need to"? Yes, when it becomes a practically accepted norm to violate that right. Is your point that government is overstepping the bounds, or that this type of right does not deserve protection? Or is it just about the semantics and definition of the word "right"? > Rights are no longer something innate to all humans, they are something that the government gives to you when it wants. I always thought that the humanity creates communities, countries and their governments to protect those rights, among other things.
lol768 6y ago
Worker's rights _are_ rights of the utmost importance. I'm curious as to how your perspective on these worker's rights and EU regulations generally has arisen ... is your primary experience of employment one based on working in the United States (which is ranked lower than a large number of European countries in the 2019 ITUC Global Rights)?
spaetzleesser 6y ago
“The right to breathe” is actually a very important right and has led to environmental regulations. It’s correlated to “the right to not be harmed by others”.
- WealthVsSurvive 6y ago
  In Soviet US, your breathe on own time, not company time. All time company time.
Mauricebranagh 6y ago
There are laws about the number of toilets minimum temps ion the work place in the UK as well as breaks. I assume the USA has building regs on toilets etc in work places

troughway 6y ago

>What does that even mean? Is the EU also going to come out with the "Right to breathe" and the "Right to go to the bathroom when you need to"? Have you seen amazon's warehouse work conditions?

0xfaded 6y ago
Every regulation like this is a band-aid, and more band-aids will just make the EU even more quintessentially the EU. If the governance focused on restoring negotiating power to workers, you wouldn't need to write to your MP to go to the toilet.
- yladiz 6y ago
  Are you saying I should have to negotiate the number of toilet breaks I get?
- chmod775 6y ago
  >If the governance focused on restoring negotiating power to workers The right for workers to form a union is also a worker's right worth protecting. But this is not a workable solution for every single employment relationship.
cdirkx 6y ago
Th right to breathe seems like something worth dying for.
- jodrellblank 6y ago
  That basically happened: > The Clean Air Act 1956 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom enacted principally in response to London's Great Smog of 1952 > When the "Great Smog" fell over the city in December 1952 the effects were unprecedented: More than 4,000 people are thought to have died in the immediate aftermath,[4] raising public concern, with fog so thick it stopped trains, cars, and public events.[5] A further 8,000 died in following weeks and months. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_Air_Act_1956 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_Air_Act_1956
dahfizz 6y ago
Yes, some people's work conditions are very bad and something needs to be done about that. That's beside the point. If you need to ask the government to give you the right to use the bathroom, or to give you the right to not check your email, you've already lost.
- WJW 6y ago
  That is the point though. Some of these people have indeed "already lost" to the companies employing them and need assistance from a government or other powerful organisation to bring back some balance to that relationship.
- user-the-name 6y ago
  What? That makes no sense. This is the exact reason you even have a government, to protect your rights.
- dmitriid 6y ago
  So, your proposal is? Leave everything as is and change nothing?
- pjc50 6y ago
  Well, yes, you've already lost because your employer is taking that away from you?

flohofwoe 6y ago

It's called "Worker's Rights" after all: https://globalnaps.org/issue/workers-rights/ https://globalnaps.org/issue/workers-rights/ I'd put that under "Safe and healthy working conditions" and "reasonable limitation of working hours".

CommanderData 6y ago

Rights aren't a thing until done by law. Otherwise you are at mercy of company policy or whims of your employer.

blonde_ocean 6y ago
From a US Constitutional perspective, rights are inherent, and the Bill of Rights protects citizens from laws that infringe on those rights. Rights are not given by the government via laws, they are inherent protections from invasive laws set by government.
- kube-system 6y ago
  That concept is called 'natural rights', and it wasn't invented by the US constitution. That document is just one of the more notable formal recognitions of natural rights in modern times.
kube-system 6y ago
Natural and human rights exist too, and they are often a bar by which we judge legal rights.

user-the-name 6y ago

The right to not work all the time is most definitely an innate freedom of utmost importance, sitting directly on a line throughout history in the fight for worker's rights.

exDM69 6y ago

It means that if your contract is for 37.5 hours per week, you don't need to do email and be available on im outside of your daily 7.5 work hours. Being on call needs to be negotiated separately.

trisiak 6y ago

> Is the EU also going to come out with the "Right to breathe" and the "Right to go to the bathroom when you need to"? Yes, when it becomes a practically accepted norm to violate that right. Is your point that government is overstepping the bounds, or that this type of right does not deserve protection? Or is it just about the semantics and definition of the word "right"? > Rights are no longer something innate to all humans, they are something that the government gives to you when it wants. I always thought that the humanity creates communities, countries and their governments to protect those rights, among other things.

lol768 6y ago

Worker's rights _are_ rights of the utmost importance. I'm curious as to how your perspective on these worker's rights and EU regulations generally has arisen ... is your primary experience of employment one based on working in the United States (which is ranked lower than a large number of European countries in the 2019 ITUC Global Rights)?

spaetzleesser 6y ago

“The right to breathe” is actually a very important right and has led to environmental regulations. It’s correlated to “the right to not be harmed by others”.

WealthVsSurvive 6y ago
In Soviet US, your breathe on own time, not company time. All time company time.

Mauricebranagh 6y ago

There are laws about the number of toilets minimum temps ion the work place in the UK as well as breaks. I assume the USA has building regs on toilets etc in work places