Protection of Workers' Right to Disconnect in the Digital Age: EU Experience and China's Path

The widespread use of digital technology in the workplace has made it possible for workers to be continuously and permanently online. This prolongs workers' working hours and blurs the boundary between their work and life. In view of this, the European Union (EU) and its members begin to protect their workers' right to disconnect, but their practice presents the characteristics of different legislative attitudes, the coexistence of soft law and hard law, and the tendency to have principle-based legislation. In China, it is necessary and feasible to establish workers' right to disconnect. On the basis of the EU experience, China should choose the path to introduce the workers' right to disconnect into law for protection, and give workers and employers some freedom of negotiation, but the legislation should be carried out step by step. As for the institutional design, it is essential to clarify the nature of the right to disconnect, establish the subjects who have the right and obligation to disconnect and balance the workers' right to disconnect and the employers' management and administrative rights. In addition, it is important to lay down the rules to calculate teleworking hours, and construct the operation and supporting mechanism for the negotiation between workers and employers, as well as a relief mechanism for the right to disconnect.