With remote work and digital communication becoming routine, many employees are compelled to remain tethered to phones, emails, and online meetings long after official working hours.
Published Sep 24, 2025 | 9:00 AM ⚊ Updated Sep 24, 2025 | 9:00 AM
The right to disconnect is the legal right of employees in many Western countries to ignore work-related calls, emails and messages outside official hours.
Synopsis: A new private member bill in the Kerala Assembly aims to protect private sector employees from the pressures of an “always-on” work culture by legally allowing them to ignore work communications beyond office hours. The bill comes a year after the death of 26-year-old Anna Sebastian Perayil, which ignited a national debate about the mental health risks and stress caused by blurred boundaries between professional and personal life.
The death of 26-year-old Anna Sebastian Perayil, a Keralite working at EY Pune, in July 2024 amid work stress, jolted Kerala into confronting the perils of an “always-on” work culture.
Her death sparked widespread discussion about corporate work culture and the fading boundary between professional duties and personal life, with employers expecting tasks to spill over long after official hours.
In a country where neither the Union government nor any state has yet attempted to legislate on the issue, Kerala has taken the first step.
The Kerala Right to Disconnect Bill 2025, drafted and tabled by Kanjirapally MLA Dr N Jayaraj, casts a harsh light on a modern workplace reality: the constant pressure to remain available, or ‘availability creep’, which takes a toll on relationships and mental health.
The World Economic Forum has highlighted the dangers of such after-hours demands, warning that they fuel stress, anxiety, strained relationships, and falling motivation.
Expectations are high that a state government which vocally condemned toxic work environments after Anna’s death may extend that sentiment into law, though the bill has been pitched as a private member’s bill and the date for considering it is yet to be fixed.
With the bill, Jayaraj seeks to enshrine the “right to disconnect” for private sector employees in Kerala.
His proposal acknowledges the profound changes in workplace culture since the COVID-19 pandemic, where the line between professional and personal life has increasingly blurred.
N Jayaraj
With remote work and digital communication becoming routine, many employees are compelled to remain tethered to phones, emails, and online meetings long after official working hours.
Jayaraj argues that this erodes personal freedom, disrupts family and leisure time, and contributes to rising levels of stress, burnout, and mental health issues.
By legally protecting an employee’s right to ignore work-related communication beyond designated hours without fear of dismissal, demotion, or loss of career benefits, the bill aims to restore balance and dignity to work-life relations.
He draws on Article 24 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which affirms the right to rest and leisure, as a moral foundation for his initiative.
For Jayaraj, the legislation is not merely about workplace reform but about upholding a basic human right in the digital era, where “always-on” culture must give way to healthier, more humane working conditions.
The bill proposes setting up Private Sector Employment Grievance Redressal Committees in every district, giving employees a formal platform to raise workplace concerns and ensure fair practices in corporate institutions.
The draft bill
Each committee will be headed by the Regional Joint Labour Commissioner as ex-officio chairman, with the Deputy Labour Commissioner as member and the District Labour Officer as secretary. The committees will have a tenure of five years.
Their mandate is to act as watchdogs over working conditions in the private sector and recommend corrective action wherever necessary.
The proposed committees will have a wide-ranging role. They will:
Beyond monitoring corporate practices, the committees are designed to humanise employment conditions by recognising the importance of rest, personal freedom, and mental health in modern workplaces.
The idea of a “Right to Disconnect”—the legal right of employees to ignore work-related calls, emails, and messages beyond official hours without fear of reprisal—is steadily gaining global traction as a safeguard against burnout in the age of hybrid and remote work.
France pioneered the move in 2016, and at least 13 countries now have formal laws or policies protecting workers’ personal time, ranging from strict legislation to voluntary codes.
In India, the debate intensified after the death of an EY employee due to overwork in 2024 and protests by Bengaluru’s IT workforce in 2025. Yet, despite these triggers, no central or state-level legislation exists.
The only attempt so far was a Private Member’s Bill introduced in 2019 by Nationalist Congress Party MP Supriya Sule, which remains pending without debate.
Labour being a concurrent subject, Kerala’s discussions on the Right to Disconnect may trigger fresh debate at the national level.
(Edited by Dese Gowda)
