Currently, the Federal Labor Law (LFT) only recognizes the right to digital disconnection for those who work under the Home Office format. This provision was included during the Covid-19 pandemic, when many people faced strenuous days when work schedules and always available.
“The patterns will have the following special obligations: respect the right to disconnection of working people in the teleworking modality at the end of the working day,” says article 330-E of the LFT.
Although the law clearly establishes that the maximum duration of the working day is eight hours for the daytime turn, seven for the night and seven and a half hours for the mixed, the truth is that technology has blurred those limits. Being a WhatsApp message away from work has normalized situations such as that raised at the beginning of the text.
A proposal by deputy Miguel Ángel Sánchez Rivera, from the Citizen Movement, seeks to extend the right to digital disconnection to all workers, not only to those who work under the teleworking modality, as the LFT currently establishes since the reform of 2021.
(Pixabay)
What does the initiative to the right to disconnection propose?
Legally recognize that every worker has the right to disconnect from his technological devices at the end of his day.
Prohibit the employer from contacting the worker outside working hours, on vacation or rest days, except for causes of force or imminent risks for the company.
Ensure that not responding to messages out of time is not a reason for dismissal or considered disobedience.
Establish as an employer obligation to respect the right to disconnection.
The proposal was already turned to the Work and Social Welfare Commission of the Chamber of Deputies.
Deputy seeks to separate the working life from the staff
In his motifs, the legislator points out that strengthening this right “promotes a healthier and more fair work environment”, allowing the separation between the personal and professional life of the workers.
Mexico has had several previous attempts to regulate this right, but until now it has only been applied to those who work from home. This new initiative seeks to close that gap and provide greater protection to the entire workforce, as already happens in countries in Europe and Latin America.
