From 1st April, all employees officially have the Right to Disconnect from work and have a better work-life balance, after Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Employment Leo Varadkar TD brought in a new Code of Practice.

The Right to Disconnect gives employees the right to switch off from work outside of normal working hours, including the right to not respond immediately to emails, telephone calls or other messages. There are three rights enshrined in the Code which comes into effect today:

• The right of an employee to not have to routinely perform work outside their normal working hours.
• The right not to be penalised for refusing to attend to work matters outside of normal working hours.
• The duty to respect another person’s right to disconnect (e.g., by not routinely emailing or calling outside normal working hours).

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