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A new bill introduced in the Parliament of India has proposed to provide worker The legal right to ignore your boss’s phone calls, emails and messages after office hours, a spark Debate on the country’s work culture,
The proposal, introduced by opposition MP Supriya Sule, comes amid growing concerns over long working hours, fatigue and digital. work culture He often expects employees to be available late at night. India has the world’s longest statutory work week of 48 hours, and surveys consistently show the highest levels. overwork and stress among major economies.
This bill would make it illegal for employers Ask for responses outside official hours or holidays, and will be prohibited from taking disciplinary action against employees who do not respond. This will also apply to all forms of communication, including phone calls, texts, emails and video calls.
Under the proposal, companies and employees would need to agree on clear rules on what constitutes an emergency, while organizations that repeatedly violate the law could face fines of 1 percent of their total employee wage bill. Employees who choose to work more than the scheduled hours will be entitled to overtime pay at the standard rate.
Ms. Sule said that the purpose of this law is to address the growing problems “Culture of constant availability” Created by Digital Tools. Bill cites research linking the pressure of working long hours to sleep deprivation, chronic stress, emotional exhaustion and ‘telepressure’, the compulsion to respond immediately, as well as what he calls “information-obesity”, the feeling of being overwhelmed by a constant stream of messages.
A similar version of the bill was proposed by Ms Sule in 2019, but did not advance. Renewed efforts are reflected Change in the attitude of many countries globally, France, including Spain and Portugal, have moved to restrict after-hours communication in the name of workers’ well-being.
Several countries have already introduced versions of the legal right to disconnect, mostly in Europe. France was the first country to adopt such a rule in 2017, requiring large companies to negotiate policies that limit emails and calls outside of work hours.
Spain and Italy followed similar legislation, giving employees the right to ignore subsequent messages without consequences. Portugal went even further in 2021, banning employers from contacting employees outside office hours except in emergencies and requiring companies to cover higher household energy bills for domestic workers.
Urban white-collar sectors in India, particularly IT, finance, consulting and outsourcing, are known for late-night shifts, extended working hours and expectations of permanent availability, partly due to time-zone alignment with Europe and the US.
As a result, millions of Indian workers often take calls at work late in the evening, respond to messages on weekends, and struggle to maintain boundaries between professional and personal time. This problem has also been exacerbated by the rise of remote and hybrid work since the pandemic.
The debate over how much Indians should work has intensified in recent years as attitudes towards work-life balance are changing and clashing with old beliefs. Earlier this year, Infosys founder and billionaire father-in-law Rishi Sunak Narayana Murthy urges youth to work 70 hours a week To help spur the country’s growth, labor groups, health experts and many corporate employees reacted angrily.
The bill has once again triggered a broader debate in India about digital rights, mental health and whether the country’s labor laws – many of which are decades old – are equipped for modern workplaces.
Some users on X shared how their workplaces expected them to be available even at midnight. Talking about the bill, one user wrote, “My former boss would message or call me at 2AM, 3AM, 4AM, or 5AM and expect me to go to the factory.”
Another X user, Ashish Kumar, wrote, “If this bill becomes law, it could be the biggest mental-health victory of this decade.”
Ms Sule has also introduced separate private member bills proposing paid paternity leave for fathers and stronger protections for gig workers, signaling a push towards more progressive labor reforms in a country with a huge informal workforce and limited social protections.
The government has not indicated whether it will support the right-to-disconnect proposal, and private member’s bills rarely become law in India. But the move has attracted significant public attention, reflecting growing pressure to regulate a work culture in which personal time is often wasted due to office demands.