New Bill, Old Problem
Work-life balance has become one of the biggest fault lines of India’s modern economy. For millions of employees, the workday does not end when they leave the office; calls, WhatsApp messages and emails continue late into the night, often without any extra pay. The Right to Disconnect Bill, 2025, recently introduced in the Lok Sabha by NCP MP Supriya Sule, directly targets this “always-on” culture.
The bill aims to give every employee a legal right to ignore work-related electronic communication outside official hours and on holidays, without fear of penalty or harassment from the employer.
What The Bill Proposes
The Right to Disconnect Bill, 2025 is a private member bill that seeks to formally recognise “disconnection” as a legal right for employees in India. It proposes that companies and societies must not compel staff to respond to calls, emails, messages or digital notifications after working hours or on weekends and holidays.
The bill mandates written agreements between employers and employees clearly defining work hours, expectations for after-hours contact, and emergency protocols, along with policies for remote work and digital boundaries. Non-compliant entities can face sanctions amounting to 1% of the total remuneration paid to their employees, and an Employees’ Welfare Authority would oversee implementation, surveys and grievance redressal.
Global Context And Mental Health
Several countries, especially in Europe, have already experimented with similar safeguards. France pioneered a legal right to disconnect in 2017, and Spain, Italy, Ireland, Belgium and Greece have also adopted frameworks limiting after-hours work communication. These measures are explicitly linked to protecting rest, limiting overwork and aligning with the broader principle of the right to rest and leisure under global human rights norms.
India’s bill is emerging in the shadow of pandemic-era remote and hybrid work, which intensified digital surveillance and extended working hours, especially in IT, finance, consulting and services. Studies and policy briefs cited around the bill note rising risks of burnout, sleep deprivation, emotional exhaustion and strained family life when employees are expected to be available round the clock.
Why This Matters For India Inc
If implemented in spirit, the bill could change workplace culture by forcing companies to treat employees’ off-hours as genuinely personal time. It would also formalise compensation for after-hours work by pushing employers to either limit such demands or pay properly for extended availability.
Paradoxically, the reform could benefit businesses too: lower burnout and attrition usually translate into higher productivity and better retention in competitive sectors like IT and startups. Aligning with global labour standards may also help Indian firms that work closely with European clients already subject to right-to-disconnect norms.
The Hard Road To Reality
The political and practical hurdles are significant. As a private member bill, the Right to Disconnect Bill, 2025 faces very low odds of passage, since only a tiny fraction of such bills have ever become law in India and government business dominates legislative time. Even if the government later adopts similar ideas in its own draft, fine-tuning definitions of “emergency”, tracking violations and covering small firms will remain complex regulatory challenges.
Industry resistance is another likely barrier, with employers citing global time zones, client deadlines and startup culture as reasons that rigid limits may hurt competitiveness. Yet, regardless of its legislative fate, the bill has already pushed a crucial question into the national spotlight: in a digital economy, should the right to switch off after work be treated as a luxury, or as a basic right?
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